The Latest: Trump en route to high-stakes meeting with Putin in Alaska
President Donald Trump ‘s face-to-face high-stakes summit with President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday could determine the fate of European security as well as the trajectory of the war in Ukraine. The exclusion of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy already deals a heavy blow to the West’s policy of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”
Washington, D.C.’s police department now potentially in open conflict with federal forces over the terms of Trump’s takeover of security in the nation’s capital, with the DEA administrator now named “emergency police chief,” a declaration that city leaders say has no basis in law. The attorney general’s declaration came after a dispute over how much help police would provide in arresting immigrants.
The Latest:
Trump says ‘he would walk’ if Putin meeting doesn’t go well
In a snippet from an interview aboard Air Force One with Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier posted on X, Trump predicted that his meeting with the Russian president would “work out very well — and if it doesn’t, I’m going to head back home real fast.”
“I would walk, yeah,” he added, after a follow up question from Baier.
Friday afternoon on social media, Trump posted a video clip from a gaggle also aboard the plane, in which he was asked what would make the summit a success.
“I want to see a ceasefire rapidly. I don’t know if it’s going to be today but I’m not going to be happy if it’s not today,” Trump told reporters, as he stood in an aisle of the plane. “I’m in this to stop the killing.”
NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Alaska to provide Trump with military advice
General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe is in Alaska to provide “military advice” to President Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, a senior NATO military official told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Grynkewich, who is the commander of U.S and NATO forces in Europe, is a supporter of Ukraine and views Russia as a clear threat to European security. He has previously spoken of the need to get military aid into Kyiv quickly, including after President Trump said in July that NATO would be coordinating deliveries of U.S weapons.
Grynkewich’s presence in Alaska is likely to be welcomed by European leaders who have spent recent days trying to convince President Trump to be robust with President Putin and not to do a deal over Kyiv’s head.
