GOP praises Trump's posture during Alaska summit, Dems cry foul over Trump's apparent coziness with Putin

While Republicans largely praised Trump for an assertive posture and for his efforts working towards peace, Democrats accused the president of being too friendly with Putin. 

However, while Mast expressed that he saw Trump challenging Putin, Democratic California Rep. Eric Swalwell described the summit as akin to "Trump toast[ing] Putin like he was giving him the lifetime achievement award."

"What a Kremlin kiss a-- our president is," Swalwell added. 

Meanwhile, as the meeting was kicking off, Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., said, "The very fact that Putin will be on American soil is a huge win for him."

"Trump invited a dictator onto U.S. soil just to get his s*** rocked," added the official X account for the Democratic Party.

But Republicans rallied around the president's handling of the summit, with Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., announcing Friday night after the summit concluded that he intends to draft a Nobel Peace Prize nomination for Trump.

Some Republicans took the opportunity Friday to slam the former Biden administration for failing to take the necessary action to halt the war in Ukraine.  

During the summit, while Putin was addressing reporters, he said that he believed the claim from Trump and Republicans that had Trump been president when the war began instead of Biden, it likely never would have started in the first place.

"The key to ending this war honorably and justly is to create an infrastructure of deterrence that Biden and Obama failed to do - which will prevent a third invasion," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said following Friday's summit. 

"If that meeting fails to materialize, I think President Trump may have to go all in to punish those who buy cheap Russian oil and gas, propping up Putin's war machine," Graham concluded.