Officials Pour Cold Water on Trump’s Budapest Summit Announcement

US and Russian officials have poured cold water on President Donald Trump’s announcement of an imminent Budapest summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, confirming Tuesday that no such meeting is planned for the immediate future. The reality check from both capitals contradicts Trump’s social media posts claiming he would meet Putin within two weeks.
The clarification came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke by telephone Monday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in what was intended to be a planning session for the presidential summit. However, American officials have now concluded that no additional in-person meeting between the secretaries is necessary, and no near-term Trump-Putin gathering will occur.
A US administration official, speaking anonymously, characterized the Rubio-Lavrov phone call as “productive,” though the positive assessment did not result in any concrete plans for a presidential meeting. The Kremlin has echoed this cautious approach, with Russian officials stating Tuesday that there is no “precise timeframe” for organizing a Trump-Putin summit.
The diplomatic confusion originated from a Thursday telephone call between Trump and Putin that the American president initially interpreted as significant progress. Trump’s optimism prompted him to announce on social media that he would meet Putin in Budapest within two weeks, timing the announcement to occur just before his scheduled discussion with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about supplying Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles.
Trump’s relationship with Putin has undergone several dramatic shifts, including the controversial August decision to host Putin in Alaska for the Russian leader’s first visit to Western soil since launching the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Despite Trump’s previous claims that his personal connection with Putin would enable him to end the war within a day of returning to office, the president has recently acknowledged experiencing frustrations with the Russian leader.