Trump, Putin Meet In Alaska; No Deal On Ukraine Made

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Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast.

It's 8.03 p.m.

Eastern Time on Friday, August 15th, 2025.

I'm Sarah McCammon.

I cover politics.

I'm Greg Myri.

I cover national security.

And I'm Tameron Keith.

I cover the White House.

And we're coming to you a bit later tonight as President Trump wrapped up a meeting today in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

I believe we had a very productive meeting.

There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them, I would say, a couple of big ones that we haven't quite got there, but we've made some headway.

So there's no deal until there's a deal.

The topic, of course, was Ukraine and what to do with a war that's lasted more than three years.

From the start, this summit had a distinct feel to it, one made for the cameras.

And that's where I want to start with each of you.

TM, you're there in a very busy, it sounds like, press filing room.

You're in Alaska.

You've been covering this summit.

Just walk us through, if you would, how things got started this afternoon and what stood out to you.

Yeah, and as a reminder, this summit was thrown together in literally a week.

From the time it was announced until we were here at Joint Base Elmendorf, Richardson, here in Alaska.

And it did have the feel, a very cinematic feel, with the two presidents' planes landing here at this airbase, the presidents exiting their planes.

There's a red carpet.

President Trump was actually sort of clapping as Putin walked toward him.

They shook hands.

There was a flyover with a bomber and fighter jets.

It was the image.

It was an image of a big, important summit.

And what I would say is that the set was built, but the script may not have been written

because some of the diplomatic legwork doesn't appear to have been done.

There were no deliverables that came out of it.

There were no big announcements.

It was like the show, but without the result.

Okay, Greg, as long as we're talking about the show, there was what seemed like a rather pointed wardrobe choice from one of the members of the Russian delegation.

What can you tell us about that?

Yes, Sarah.

So the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, showed up for the event.

He's wearing a sweatshirt, it looks like, under his jacket.

And it says USSR, the former Soviet Union, in Russian Cyrillic script.

And that was not an accident.

He knew what he was doing.

And, you know, we've heard over and over again how Putin has, well, Putin has said that the breakup breakup of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.

So they're there to discuss a war in Ukraine where Russia is seen as wanting to

rebuild the former Soviet Union.

And here's how the Russian foreign minister shows up.

So

that was duly noted.

And I have to say, the big takeaway, though, for all the swagger and the pomp and circumstance here was they didn't announce anything.

And remember, Trump has been trying to get a ceasefire for months.

Ukraine has signed on to it.

Russia has always put up conditions about why it couldn't do that.

Trump had to think he could meet Putin one-on-one and persuade him to do this one thing.

And yet he couldn't.

Based on what we heard, Putin made literally no concessions.

Trump couldn't get anything from him.

Or if he did, they they didn't announce it.

And President Trump likes to announce things when he makes a deal or has some sort of achievement.

So based on what we've heard so far,

there wasn't really an agreement on something that Trump really wanted.

So here's what we know about what happened today.

I mean, through the afternoon, Trump and Putin, along with representatives from each government, met, they talked.

The two presidents then held what had been billed as a press conference, but really it was more like a pair of statements because neither leader took questions from the reporters in the room.

Tam, you were there.

Putin spoke about an agreement without providing any details about that purported agreement, and he said he hoped Ukraine would not torpedo that supposed agreement.

I mean, what do you make of how that all played out?

Right, so they were standing in front of a banner that said pursuing peace, and yet neither of these leaders ended up talking directly about peace or any sort of agreement to reach that peace.

Putin did say that they had

maybe come to an agreement on some things, but nothing was then described.

And he said that

the primary causes, the root causes of this conflict would have to be addressed.

Well, those root causes in the way Putin has described it in the past, including Ukraine wanting to join NATO and increasing closeness between Ukraine and the Western nations.

Of course,

Ukraine has only grown closer to Western countries since the start of the war with all of the aid that has gone to Ukraine, including powerful weapons systems.

And for Trump's part, he said the meeting was productive, but they didn't get there.

He said there were many things they agreed on, but a couple of big ones, they haven't quite gotten there.

So there's no deal until there's a deal.

Well, what were those big things?

We were literally literally shouting those questions.

Like, wait, you guys talked around it.

You didn't say anything specific.

We were shouting, you know, what did you agree to?

What didn't you agree to?

And they walked out of the room.

As I was getting moved out of the press conference room, I saw a sailor in his dress whites holding a microphone, a microphone that would have been used to take questions from reporters,

but that microphone didn't get any use.

All dressed up with nowhere to go.

You know, TM, this isn't really a surprise, though, is it, in some ways?

The White House was downplaying expectations leading up to this event.

I mean,

were you surprised at the outcome?

I was a little surprised.

The White House was tempering expectations, and then in the next breath, President Trump would say something like, I'll be unhappy if I don't get out of this meeting with a ceasefire.

He was setting the odds of it going poorly at 25%, which means he put a 75% odd on it going well.

But clearly, President Trump, if he has something to brag about, he is going to brag about it.

And that is not what happened.

They left very quickly.

Of course, it can't be overstated.

There were only two parties in the room.

Zelensky of Ukraine was not there.

Greg, you're in Kyiv right now.

It's early in the morning as we're talking to you.

Are you seeing any early reaction to what happened today?

Not yet.

It's a little after three in the morning, but we've been talking to Ukrainians for the past week since since this summit was announced, and so we have a pretty good notion of where they stand.

Their big concern was Putin and Trump would reach some sort of agreement, some sort of arrangement, and then there would be pressure on Ukraine to accept that deal, even though they were not part of the negotiations.

They weren't there to make their own case.

Based on what we've seen so far, it doesn't seem like there's any agreement that they'll be forced to accept.

So it sort of takes us back to where we were before this summit.

So in that sense, it could be a sense of relief, I think, for the Ukrainians.

The war is presumably still carrying on.

We'll see in the hours and days ahead.

But Ukraine had this big fear so far that has not materialized.

All right, it's time for a quick break.

We'll have more in just a moment.

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And we're back.

Tam, President Trump talked about making progress, but also said that there were sticking points, including one big sticking point, without saying what that was.

What might he be referring to there?

Well, President Trump came into this saying he wanted a ceasefire.

There was no open discussion in front of cameras about this war ending, about the bombing stopping, about anything even closely resembling a ceasefire.

So that would seem to be one of the big issues.

I mean, the sticky point, again, as Tam just said, is a ceasefire.

Ukraine considers that the starting point for serious negotiations dealing with the core issues and trying to find a way.

a way to end the war.

But they don't want to hold negotiations while the fighting is still going on.

So they want a ceasefire first and then sit down, talk it out, work through these really thorny, difficult questions.

But that didn't happen.

And again, you know, to the point that

this summit was thrown together so quickly, I think this lack of a result speaks to that.

If this had been planned with more time,

where aides could have worked it out, you think that Trump would have insisted that Putin agree in advance that there's going to be some sort of ceasefire.

They'll both get up in front of the cameras and the microphones and announce a ceasefire.

It's sort of a minimal agreement for holding this summit and for bringing Putin to the United States and giving him this platform.

And yet, clearly, that wasn't arranged in advance, and it doesn't seem like Trump was able to persuade Putin to make that move or that concession.

Dam, as we can hear, you're still there in that press center in Alaska.

Before you have to pack it up in a minute or two here, what else stood out to you today?

Yeah, and I will admit that I have just walked out of the press center and I'm walking towards the buses that will be taking us off of the base.

But President Putin came into this meeting in international pariah, something he's been since the war in Ukraine began.

He leaves having shared a stage with the President of the United States on U.S.

soil.

So that is a win.

But it's not clear that he got any sort of deal or agreement to thaw relations or

to break down the sanctions that are in place that are really isolating Russia, at least from the West and from NATO countries.

Tam, we're going to let you get on that bus and get home.

And we're going to leave it there for the moment.

I'm Sarah McCammon.

I cover politics.

I'm Greg Myri.

I cover national security.

And I'm Tam RaKeith.

I cover the White House.

And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.

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