Waiting for Trump
It can be difficult, in the immediate aftermath, to know with confidence how private meetings between presidents went.
Nothing major appeared to happen the August day US President Donald Trump met his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska. But shortly thereafter, news broke that Trump had taken Putin's side by shelving a demand for an unconditional ceasefire. This prompted European leaders to rush to Washington to bring the White House back on side. Then, only recently, two months later, did the world learn that Trump raised his voice, threatened to walk out, and canceled the planned lunch to discuss economic ties after Putin rejected a proposed deal to end the war in Ukraine.
Initial indications from the just-concluded meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are that nothing major happened. No testy lectures, but no landmark agreements.
A high-level delegation of Ukrainian officials has been in Washington all week, negotiating a European-funded purchase of various US missile systems, including Tomahawks (and a deal to sell Ukrainian-made drones to Washington and launch joint drone production). Zelenskyy and his team were growing hopeful that this would lead to a decision on a missile sale from Trump, but then came the latest surprise—Trump's announcement that he had spoken to Putin and agreed to meet him in Hungary, Moscow’s best friend in the EU.
In his most recent public remarks, Trump indicated that although Tomahawks are "something we'll be talking about", the decision to provide them seemingly will not come immediately, leaving it as leverage to help Trump strike a deal in Hungary. Asked about providing Ukraine with the missiles, Trump said, "Hopefully, they won't need it. Hopefully, we'll be able to get the war over without thinking about Tomahawks. I think we're fairly close to that." Trump also said that providing Tomahawks "could mean bigger escalation" and that "we don't want to be giving away things that we need to protect our country."
Putin continues to string Trump along rather than take steps to end his war, and a Ukrainian reporter directly asked the US president about this. Trump’s response shrugged it off. He said with an air of self-confidence, "Yeah, I am [concerned about Putin playing for time]. But you know, I've been played all my life by the best of them. And I came out really well. So it's possible, yeah, a little time. But it's all right. But I think that I'm pretty good at this stuff. I think he wants to make a deal. I made eight [to end wars]. I'm going to make a ninth."
In the meantime, Putin's brutal war goes on, while Ukraine, Europe, and rest of the free world continue to hope that Trump will finally apply real pressure on the Kremlin so that his deal-making talents yield long-awaited good-faith negotiations.