UPDATED: President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin ended their summit with a press conference in which both leaders made statements but took no questions.
Media outlets scrambled to try to figure out if there was any kind of agreement, with Putin talking about improved relations with the United States, yet calling the meeting a “starting point.” Trump, meanwhile, said that the summit made “some headway,” but that “there’s no deal until there’s a deal.”
That left correspondents and pundits to fill in the information void, to the point of reading the body language of the respective leaders and they delivered statements to the press.
CNN’s Kaitlin Collins said that as Trump was listening to Putin, “I flashed him a thumbs up to signal, ‘Did the meeting go well?’ He kind of looked at me and shrugged his shoulders … and offered a little bit of a half smile.”
No ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine was announced, and Trump said that “I am going to start making a few phone calls and tell them what happened. But we had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to. There are just a very few that are left. Some are not that significant. One probably is most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there. We didn’t get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there.”
Putin spoke first at the press conference, after an afternoon in which he was warmly greeted by Trump after their planes landed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska. John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser and now a commentator for CNN, declared it a victory for Putin, as he is no longer isolated. Putin also spoke of wanting to address “the primary roots, the primary causes” of the war.
There also was no clear date for any future meeting, as Putin told Trump, “Next time in Moscow.”
“That’s an interesting one,” Trump said. “I’ll get a little heat for that one, but I could possibly see it happening.”
PREVIOUSLY: Networks are providing special coverage on Friday to President Donald Trump’s summit in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine.
All the major news networks were at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson to capture Trump’s arrival, at 10:20 a.m. local time in Anchorage. Putin arrived about 30 minutes later. On a red carpet, Trump briefly clapped his hands as Putin approached, and the two leaders greeted each other and shook hands, before proceeding to a riser for photo op and military flyover.
Later, at the summit site, they sat with their delegations for another photo op, and the backdrop with the words “Pursuing Peace.” One reporter could be heard shouting, “Mr. Putin, will you commit to not killing any more civilians?”
Fox News anchor Bret Baier interviewed Trump on the way from Air Force One.
“I think it’s going to work out very well and if it doesn’t, I’m going to head back home real fast,” Trump told Baier, adding that, “I would walk, yeah.” The interview will air on Special Report at 6 p.m. ET on Friday. Baier also will interview Trump on his return to D.C., and Sean Hannity, who has been in Alaska, will interview the president on Friday evening.
Also in Anchorage are CBS Evening News co-anchor John Dickerson and Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan and NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas. David Muir is anchoring World News Tonight from New York, with Martha Raddatz, Mary Bruce and Rachel Scott in Alaska. NewsNation has Kellie Meyer in Anchorage and Robert Sherman in Ukraine, with plans for a two-hour live report in primetime anchored by Blake Burman.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that a planned one-on-one meeting between Trump and Putin will now be a three-on-three, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff joining the president.
“There’s nothing set in stone,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “I want certain things. I wanted to see a ceasefire. This has nothing to do with Europe. Europe’s not telling me what to do, but they’re going to be involved in the process obviously, as well as Zelensky. But I want to see a ceasefire rapidly.”
He said that territorial swaps would be discussed, “but I’ve got to let Ukraine make that decision.”
Commentators examined every aspect of the summit, from the staging to the body language. On NewsNation, George Will noted the obvious: Ukraine is not present. He said, “These pictures, this fact of Mr. Putin landing on American soil is a tremendous victory going in. If nothing comes out of this but those pictures, but the fact that Mr. Putin’s isolation has ended.”
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, wrote on X, “Russia must end the war that it itself started and has been dragging out for years. The killings must stop. A meeting of leaders is needed – at the very least, Ukraine, America, and the Russian side – and it is precisely in such a format that effective decisions are possible. Security guarantees are needed. Lasting peace is needed. Everyone knows the key objectives. I want to thank everyone who is helping to achieve real results.”
