President Donald Trump has arrived in Alaska for his face-to-face high-stakes summit with President Vladimir Putin in Alaska that could determine the fate of European security as well as the trajectory of the war in Ukraine.
As his plane touched down shortly after 2 p.m. ET, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that what had been planned as a one-on-one meeting between Trump and Putin was expanding, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff joining.
For an expanded bilateral meeting and lunch, Leavitt said, Rubio, Witkoff, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and chief of staff Susie Wiles would also be involved.
The exclusion of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy already deals a heavy blow to the West’s policy of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”
Trump says there’s “a possibility” of the United States offering Ukraine security guarantees alongside European powers, “but not in the form of NATO.”
He said it will be up to the Ukrainians to decide whether to concede land to Putin as part of a peace deal, but added: “I think they’ll make the proper decision.”
“I’m not here to negotiate for Ukraine,” Trump said. “I’m here to get them at a table.”
The office of President Emmanuel Macron says the French leader and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke Thursday and again Friday before the Trump-Putin summit. The two have agreed to meet each other after the U.S.-Russia summit, when “it will be most useful and effective.”
The brief readout of the exchanges didn’t detail any specifics of what Macron and Zelenskyy discussed.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are among the Trump administration officials joining the president for his flight to Alaska.
Trump will also be accompanied on Air Force One by CIA Director John Ratcliffe and top White House aides, including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
Trump made his first public comments on the day as he prepares to meet with Putin.
“HIGH STAKES!!!” he posted on Truth Social as his motorcade idled outside the White House shortly after sunrise in Washington.
He left the White House for Joint Base Andrews, the home base for Air Force One, at 7:32 a.m. ET. He was expected to meet Putin's plane in Alaska at 2 p.m. ET.
An early morning rain storm hit Anchorage, Alaska, just before 3 a.m. on Friday, and the streets leading to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson were sopping wet. The temperature was hovering right about 53° F early Friday morning.