President Donald Trump revealed on Sunday night that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted their summit meeting to be held “anywhere” but the United States, saying it was “very hard” for Putin to make an appearance in Alaska for the high-stakes meeting.
Trump made the revelation in a Truth Social post on Sunday night, in which he took aim at the media over criticism of having Putin on U.S. soil for a summit that ultimately ended with no ceasefire or peace deal in the Ukraine war.
“The Fake News has been saying for 3 days that I suffered a ‘major defeat’ by allowing President Vladimir Putin of Russia to have a major Summit in the United States. Actually, he would have loved doing the meeting anywhere else but the U.S., and the Fake News knows this. It was a major point of contention!” the U.S. president said.
In a follow-up post from Trump that targeted Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) over his own criticism of the summit, Trump pushed back on the notion that it made Putin “look good in coming to America.”
“Actually, it was very hard for President Putin to do so. This war can be ended, NOW, but stupid people like Chris Murphy, John Bolton, and others, make it much harder to do so,” Trump said.
While drawing a mixed reaction from the media, who Putin and Trump did not take questions from at the end of their three-hour meeting in Anchorage, it was largely hailed by European leaders, who are descending en masse to Washington, D.C., for a meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
That meeting, slated for Monday, is the next stage in the peace negotiations.
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On Sunday night, Trump teased it as a “Big day” to come, while also reiterating his plea for Zelensky to end the over three-year war.
“President Zelensky of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight. Remember how it started,” he said.
