In Ukraine, it was not a welcome sight.
"Red carpets and this level of ceremony are normal at international events, but in this case – for an aggressor responsible for the deaths of millions – it should not have happened," said Maria Drachova, 40, a lawyer in the capital Kyiv.
Drachova, who woke up and watched the footage over breakfast, said it appeared as though "the entire event was staged to please Putin".
"The rational world is behaving irrationally by giving him this welcome," she said.
Ukrainians who had stayed up late to watch the spectacle were seeing the "legitimisation of a war criminal at the highest level", said Oleksandr Kovalenko, a Ukrainian writer and political analyst.
"There was no need for this pomp at all," Kovalenko said. "This is a meeting that should have been conducted in a much more restrained way – minimalistic, without this level of respect."
"When I saw what happened I felt crushed," said Serhii Orlyk, 50, from the eastern province of Donetsk, which has been largely seized by Russian forces and seen some of the most intense fighting of the war.
"I lost my home twice, in Sloviansk and in Donetsk. I lost relatives," Orlyk said. "I understand that to agree on something, there must be protocol, you cannot just slap Putin in the face when he arrives. But it was a very unpleasant spectacle – especially his smirks."
"It was a massive victory for Putin even before he got off the plane, to be rehabilitated in this manner," Giles said. "Trump has facilitated him arriving to be greeted as a head of state, when he ought to be finding it difficult to travel because he is an internationally wanted war criminal."
Trump's approach would be unlikely to inspire European leaders to follow suit, Giles said. "If anything, it will reinforce how important it is not to endorse Putin's demands on Ukraine, and not to subject themselves to the same kinds of spectacle that is earning Trump scorn."
The US had a "wide range of tools" at its disposal to assist Ukraine in that mission, said Oleksandr Kovalenko, the political analyst. But pomp and ceremony for President Putin should not be among them, he said.
"Perhaps this was all intended to deceive and flatter Putin, and push him into following the White House's strategy," Kovalenko said.
"But I doubt it. More likely it is Trump's whim, without any strategy at all."
