(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday previewed his highly-anticipated meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, saying he’s hopeful for “constructive conversations” but that it isn’t up to him to make a peace deal.
Trump confirmed last week he would sit down with Putin in Alaska as his imposed deadline for Moscow to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine came and went. No exact time or specific venue has been announced for Friday’s summit.
“This is really a feel-out meeting, a little bit,” Trump told reporters in the White House briefing room, where he held a news conference on a federal takeover of Washington’s police force and deployment of the National Guard to deal, he said, with the city’s crime and homelessness.
“I think if it weren’t for me, he would not be even talking to anybody else right now,” Trump said of Putin. At the same time, Trump downplayed the idea that Friday’s talks will result in an end to the war in Ukraine.
“We’re going to see what the parameters are, and then I’m going to call up President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and the European leaders right after the meeting,” Trump added. “And I’m going to tell them what kind of a deal — I’m not going to make a deal. It’s not up to me to make a deal.”
Trump said Zelenskyy wasn’t invited to be part of Friday’s meeting, but that he’d call the Ukrainian leader first after to relay what was discussed. He said if there’s a “fair deal” that he would reveal it to Zelenskyy and European leaders.
“And I may say, ‘Lots of luck, keep fighting’ or I may say, ‘We can make a deal,'” Trump said.
When asked by Trump how he’ll know whether a deal can be made, Trump responded: “Because that’s what I do. I make deals.”
Trump declined to share specifics on what he would consider a fair agreement between Ukraine and Russia, but again suggested that there would be “some land swapping.”
Trump said his goal was to set up a next meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin or between himself, Zelenskyy and Putin.
“I’ll be there if they need, but I want to have a meeting set up between the two leaders,” Trump said.
Friday’s meeting will mark the first time Putin will be in the U.S. since 2015. Trump on Monday mistakenly said he was “going to Russia” as he discussed the summit, though he also praised the fact that Putin is coming to the U.S. rather than the other way around.
“I thought it was very respectful that the president of Russia is coming to our country as opposed to us going to his country or even a third party place,” Trump said. “But I think we’ll have constructive conversations.”
Trump on Monday continued to express frustration with Putin and Zelenskyy, and again claimed the war wouldn’t have started if he were president. Trump had repeatedly claimed on the campaign trail that he would end the war within his first 24 hours in office, which he later said was an exaggeration. He described the yearslong conflict as “complex” with a “lot of bad blood” but that he would press Putin to pursue peace.
“I am going in to speak to Vladimir Putin and I will be telling him, ‘You have to end this war. You have to end it.’ And he wasn’t going to mess with me. This war would have never happened,” Trump said.
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