From The Hill: President Trump will depart the White House early Friday morning for a trip to Alaska, where he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for a high-stakes summit centered on ending the war in Ukraine.
Trump is expected in Anchorage midafternoon Eastern time on Friday. The initial meeting with Putin is expected to take place at 3:30 p.m. with just the two leaders and translators, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Thursday, according to NBC News.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told “Fox & Friends” early Thursday that following the meeting, Trump and Putin with hold a lunch with members of delegations from both countries.
Ushakov told reporters on a call in Moscow that the Russian delegation will include himself, Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and Putin’s longtime friend and investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev, NBC reported.
Trump and Putin are scheduled to hold a joint press conference following their private meeting.
President Trump spoke at length with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade in a telephone interview Thursday morning, and explained that he hopes this meeting with Putin will be followed soon by a second meeting with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
.@POTUS: “I’m more interested in an immediate peace deal — getting peace fast. Depending on what happens with my meeting, I’m going to be calling up President Zelensky and let’s get him over to wherever we’re going to meet.” pic.twitter.com/rt9KYzJBG6
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 14, 2025
“This meeting sets up the second meeting. The second meeting is going to be very, very important because that’s going to be a meeting where they make a deal… but there is a 25% chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting,” Trump said.
.@POTUS ahead of the Alaska Summit: “This meeting sets up the second meeting. The second meeting is going to be very, very important because that’s going to be a meeting where they make a deal… but there is a 25% chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting.” pic.twitter.com/u8anhZlxU3
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 14, 2025
While speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, President Trump said, “We have a meeting with President Putin tomorrow. I think it’s going to be a good meeting but the more important meeting will be the second meeting… We’re going to have a meeting with President Putin, President Zelensky, myself… and maybe we’ll bring some of the European leaders along, maybe not… we’re going to see what happens. I think President Putin will make peace, I think President Zlenskyy will make peace… we’ll see if they can get along.”
.@POTUS: “We have a meeting with President Putin tomorrow. I think it’s going to be a good meeting but the more important meeting will be the second meeting… We’re going to have a meeting with President Putin, President Zelensky, myself… we’ll see if they can get along.” pic.twitter.com/tLWJntOL67
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 14, 2025
White House Press Secretary Karoline Keaton also laid out the agenda for the meeting during a Fox News interview:
.@PressSec: “The President wants to exhaust all options to try to bring this war to a peaceful resolution… He wants to sit down and look the Russian President in the eye and see what progress can be made to move the ball forward to end this brutal war.” pic.twitter.com/ioiU7ePUz9
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 14, 2025
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