(NewsNation) — Observers say it was a particularly telling moment Friday in Alaska: As President Trump greeted Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, a B-2 stealth bomber soared overhead, accompanied by F-22 Raptor fighters.
Both leaders looked up briefly to take in the sight before meeting privately to discuss potential peace in Ukraine.
Although Trump has publicly shown deference to Putin in recent days in hopes of setting the stage for a deal, analysts say the display of airborne hardware at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson was no accident.
B-2s delivered airstrikes on Iran
America’s B-2s were dominantly showcased in late June, when seven of the radar-evading bombers flew 36 hours straight to deliver “bunker-buster” bombs on three Iranian nuclear sites, in support of U.S. ally Israel. Although there was some debate about how much damage the planes ultimately inflicted, there was no question the B-2s lived up to their stealth moniker.
“That B-2 flyover — I do not think that we can make enough of that moment,” Leland Vittert, host of NewsNation’s “On Balance,” said during a roundtable discussion Friday about the Trump-Putin summit.
Vittert said the display may explain Putin’s unusually “obsequious,” or fawning, behavior at the summit.
Military hardware a ‘flex’ in Alaska
Chris Stirewalt, anchor of “The Hill Sunday,” said the planes were indeed a part of the visual scene the Trump administration was trying to evoke.
“All of the staging here was a flex,” he told NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas. “In the beginning, he’s displaying Putin like a trophy: ‘I caught him. He came. He’s on my turf. Look at him, he’s smaller than me.’”
But Stirewalt said the beginning of the summit contrasted notably with the conclusion, a joint news conference between Trump and Putin, where the U.S. president appeared grim and low-energy compared to Putin.
The U.S. military has 19 of the B-2 stealth bombers, primarily based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. It takes two pilots to operate the sleek aircraft. Each costs more than $2 billion.