President Donald Trump’s announcement of an imminent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to have been premature, with US officials confirming Tuesday that no such gathering is planned for the immediate future. The clarification underscores the unpredictable nature of Trump’s approach to foreign policy announcements.
Following a Monday telephone conversation between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, American officials have concluded that no further diplomatic preparations are needed at this time. The decision means that Trump’s social media announcement of a Budapest summit within two weeks will not come to fruition as originally stated.
The US official, speaking anonymously, described the Rubio-Lavrov phone call as “productive,” though the positive assessment did not result in any concrete plans for a presidential meeting. Russian officials have similarly declined to commit to specific timing, with the Kremlin stating Tuesday that there is no “precise timeframe” for a Trump-Putin summit.
The diplomatic confusion originated from a Thursday phone call between the two presidents, which Trump interpreted as significant progress in bilateral relations. Trump’s optimism led him to quickly announce via social media that he would meet Putin within two weeks in Budapest, timing the declaration to occur just before his scheduled meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss supplying Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles.
Trump’s relationship with Putin has undergone multiple sudden shifts, including the controversial August meeting in Alaska that marked Putin’s first visit to Western soil since launching the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. While Trump has repeatedly claimed his personal rapport with Putin would enable him to end the war within a day of returning to office, he has recently expressed frustrations in dealing with the Russian leader.
