The White House is reducing expectations for any breakthrough from President Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Trump and other administration officials have used terms like “listening session” and “feel-out meeting” to describe the planned discussion about the war in Ukraine. Trump and his team have largely avoided predicting any deliverables that might come out of the meeting and noted that it will likely take a follow-up summit involving both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for any concrete progress to be made on a ceasefire. Trump is expected to meet one-on-one with Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, but other logistics are still being sorted out as the summit approaches.
Trump is a wild card in Friday’s meeting, as he has avoided setting expectations and has threatened “severe consequences” if Russia did not stop the fighting after the summit. He hoped to arrange a second meeting quickly involving Putin and Zelensky, or that perhaps a second meeting would not happen at all. Some critics have bemoaned that Trump is giving Putin a win simply by holding the meeting on U.S. soil without Zelensky or leadership from Ukraine present. European allies have approached Friday’s meeting with caution, expressing appreciation for Trump’s efforts while bracing for the possibility that he may go off script.
