Washington Free Beacon contributing editor Daniel Halper on Friday joined Fox Business host David Asman to discuss the importance of President Donald Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.
Halper said that the ceasefire deal for southwest Syria that the two presidents reached at their meeting was a goal that former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State John Kerry wanted but had not achieved.
"This is something that the Obama administration really wanted badly," Halper said. "John Kerry met any number of times with his counterpart in Russia trying to get a ceasefire, and Trump comes in, his first meeting with Putin appears to be productive."
"I think that is something that both sides, the Trump and the Putin side, wanted to show perhaps as a diss to Obama and a way to show that there's a new relationship between the U.S. and Russia and that each side is going to use each other to help achieve their own national interests," he continued.
Asman asked Halper what he thought about Trump bestowing Putin with "excessive praise" so the Russian leader would let his guard down.
"I think there is an element of President Trump that just wants to be loved my whoever he's talking to," Halper said. "Whether he's holding a big rally or having a one-on-one meeting, he tends to flatter the person and try to have that person really like him and, therefore, be able to assert his will over that person."
Halper said that Trump and Putin both are "big personalities," and that although things could get lost in translation at first, this meeting was just the beginning.
"There's a lot of attention due to the meddling and to other issues, but I think we'll just have to see how this relationship actually develops over time, and it could realign the United States' foreign policy," he said.