Alaska summit tests Trump's peacemaker credentials

The Hill

2 days ago

In today's issue:
▪ Trump: Agenda with Putin 'like chess'
▪ AG Bondi federalizes DC police control
▪ States' redistricting arms race escalates
▪ Trump shores up Social Security support
President Trump today faces the most critical test yet of his ability to deliver on his promise to make peace in Ukraine.
The president will depart for Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska, for a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine.
Trump is expected in Anchorage midafternoon Eastern time. The initial meeting with Putin will take place with just the two leaders and translators, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Thursday.
The summit comes on the heels of a whirlwind week of preparations, including calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European allies, who sought to stiffen Trump's spine this week, hoping to steer him away from any talk of territorial concessions.
The Hill's Laura Kelly breaks down what Trump, Zelensky and Putin are looking to get out of the Alaska summit.
Follow along with The Hill's live coverage.
PEACEMAKER: The president has repeatedly cast himself as a force for peace in the world and makes no secret of his goal of winning a Nobel Peace Prize.
'My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier,' he said during his second inaugural address. 'That's what I want to be: a peacemaker and a unifier.'
In 2024, Trump campaigned on a pledge to end the war in Ukraine — which began with Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 — within 24 hours of taking office, remarks he later said were sarcastic. Seven months into Trump's second term, Putin has been a brick wall, refusing any concessions toward peace and only increasing the severity of attacks on Ukraine.
▪ The Hill: Five key questions ahead of the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska.
▪ BBC: In maps: The war-ravaged Ukrainian territories at the heart of the Trump-Putin summit.
▪ The Hill: GOP momentum for a Ukraine aid package grows as Trump sits down with Putin.
Trump said Thursday he expects 'a good meeting' with Putin, but he said the most important meeting will be the one after that, with Russia, Ukraine and perhaps European leaders.
Trump told Fox News's Brian Kilmeade on Thursday that his negotiations with Putin and Zelensky are 'like chess.'
'This meeting sets up the second meeting. The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that's going to be a meeting where they make a deal,' Trump said. 'But there is a 25 percent chance this meeting will not be a successful meeting.'
Putin said Thursday that Trump was making 'energetic and sincere efforts' toward peace in Ukraine, according to a readout obtained by NBC News. The Russian leader suggested those efforts could 'create long-term conditions of peace between our countries and in Europe, and in the world as a whole,' particularly if the negotiations are extended to cover strategic offensive weapons treaties.
▪ The Wall Street Journal: Finnish President Alexander Stubb is a Trump whisperer when it comes to Russia. It helps that he loves golf.
▪ The New York Times: Russia and Ukraine agree: A Trump summit is a big win for Putin.
▪ The Washington Post: How Putin, an ex-KGB officer, will seek to sway Trump at Alaska summit.
UPPER HAND? But some European officials have expressed concerns that Trump could still be swayed by Putin at today's meeting, even as the president expressed mounting frustrations with his Russian counterpart.
One official told CNN that in their experience, Russia never engages in meaningful discussions 'to actually arrive at something concrete.'
'It's rather just to buy time,' they said.
Smart Take with Blake Burman
In just a few hours, President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet in Alaska to discuss the war between Russia and Ukraine and the potential to broker a peace deal.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor told me today's meeting likely won't end with a binding peace deal but could open the door to one in the future.
'A ceasefire is complicated, ' Taylor said. ' It can't be done in one meeting, but it can be a commitment. And I think President Trump has the ability to push Putin to do that. '
On Thursday, Trump alluded to the need for another summit that would include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
I hope you join me tonight on NewsNation as we are live throughout the evening and learn together what could come next.
Burman hosts 'The Hill' weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation.
3 Things to Know Today
▪ The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage fell this week to its lowest level in nearly 10 months, to 6.58 percent.
▪ The producer price index jumped 0.9 percent last month, according to data released Thursday, which surprised analysts who pointed to tariffs.
▪ The Atlantic's first storm alert of the season has arrived as Tropical Storm Erin swirls toward the Caribbean while strengthening into a hurricane today, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Leading the Day
STATE & CITY WATCH: Washington, D.C., is navigating a heavy show of force by the National Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal law enforcers on the city's streets, sparking scattered public protests amid daily administration tallies of arrests, including of migrants without legal status.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said city police must aid in immigration enforcement and named Terry Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, as ' emergency' police commissioner, setting the stage for a conflict with local authorities. The police department, including Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith, must have Cole's approval before issuing any directives, Bondi said.
Earlier on Thursday, Smith directed the city's police to cooperate with ICE agents during Trump's 30-day public safety emergency order, which the president says he will seek to extend with Congress's help. But Smith's order reiterated longstanding city policy preventing the police from pursuing immigration cases.
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb (D), in a legal opinion, told Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) that Bondi's directive removing power from the police chief was unlawful. 'You are not legally obligated to follow it,' he advised. The mayor appeared to agree.' There is no statute that conveys the District's personnel authority to a federal official,' she wrote on social media Thursday night.
▪ WUSA-9: Bowser late on Thursday explained her brief absence from D.C. for a family commitment, set to return today.
▪ The New York Times: Federal officials late Thursday targeted homeless encampments in Washington, many of which are in parks, traffic circles and medians that are federal government property.
In a city predominantly run by Democrats, D.C.'s local officials have largely been hesitant to publicly push back against Trump without appearing to defend crime and other urban problems. But Washington's unique status as a district with a powerful federal landlord stirred new debate about autonomy. And residents have been vocal.
'We don't need the National Guard,' said Lamont Mitchell, chair of the Anacostia Coordinating Council, which represents a section of Washington east of Capitol Hill and across the Anacostia River.
'But we do need the ATF, and we do need other law enforcement to find out where these guns are coming from and help get guns off the street,' he told Washingtonian magazine.
Crime in Washington ' is worse than it's ever been,' Trump told reporters on Thursday, contradicting Justice Department data. Federalization of the D.C. police, which the president has suggested could be replicated in other major cities, is ' getting the criminals the hell out of here.'
The administration is releasing daily arrest tallies in Washington, including arrests of migrants without legal status, adopting PR strategies honed during its immigration crackdowns.
A deepening conflict exists between D.C. conditions the president and congressional Republicans criticize and the power that Washington's mayor and the City Council can wield under the constraints of home rule law.
Republicans in Congress initially passed legislation to fund the federal government but then blocked the District from spending nearly $1 billion, which Congress had approved. The GOP move set off a scramble to cover police salaries, school programs and public works.
▪ The Hill: Senate Democrats vow to block any GOP efforts to extend the duration of the federalized police takeover in D.C.
CALIFORNIA: Gov. Gavin Newsom, the Democratic counterweight to a Texas GOP redistricting effort, held a news conference Thursday that was crashed by federal Customs and Border Patrol forces, who showed up at the governor's Oakland location dressed in camouflage gear and wearing face masks while reportedly making arrests.
Meanwhile, Trump on Thursday adjusted his explanation for his interest in California, saying he was working to save Los Angeles ahead of the 2028 Olympics there. The president told reporters he deployed the National Guard and Marines into Los Angeles in June, which he initially said was aimed at supporting ICE arrests, to salvage the city's ability to host the Summer Olympics in three years.
▪ Politico: In a nationwide redistricting arms race aimed at retaining a GOP majority in the House after next year's midterms, Republican governors and legislatures are split.
Where and When
The president departs at 6:45 a.m. for Alaska to meet with Putin in Anchorage at 3 p.m. EDT. Trump will depart Alaska this evening local time, arriving at the White House at 4:35 a.m. Saturday.
The House will hold a pro forma session at noon and will return to work in Washington on Sept. 2.
The Senate will hold a pro forma session at 10:15 a.m.
Zoom In
REDISTRICTING: The Texas state House Democrats who fled the state nearly a week ago to use their absence to block GOP redistricting said they would return if Republicans end their special legislative session today and if California releases its own redistricting map meant to wipe out any GOP gains in Texas, the Austin American-Statesman reports. Voters in the state say they are divided over the GOP redistricting gambit, according to a new survey.
Former President Obama during a video call Thursday rallied the Texas Democrats who fled their state, ABC News reported. Obama will headline an Aug. 19 fundraiser in Martha's Vineyard for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.
Texas: The expensive Senate GOP primary in the Lone Star State between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and challenger Ken Paxton, the state's attorney general, is neck-and-neck, according to a new poll.
Florida: Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Sunshine State on Thursday announced a second prison to be built for migrants headed for deportation as courts weigh the state's construction of the 'Alligator Alcatraz' prison in the Everglades. The new 'Deportation Depot' with 1,300 immigration detention beds will be constructed near Jacksonville at Florida's existing Baker Correctional Institution.
Elsewhere
GAZA: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says talks are underway with several countries about taking in Palestinians displaced by the war in Gaza. The countries and areas in question are South Sudan, Somaliland, Ethiopia, Libya and Indonesia, CNN reports. In exchange for taking in some of Gaza's 2 million people, the countries are looking for 'significant financial and international compensation.'
Netanyahu has never given a detailed vision of what will happen to Gaza after the war but has repeatedly advocated for resettling displaced Palestinians.
Meanwhile, thousands of Israelis continue to take to the streets to protest the ongoing war in Gaza and the government's failure to bring home Israeli hostages.
▪ Axios: David Barnea, the director of Israel's Mossad spy agency, visited Qatar on Thursday for talks on the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.
▪ NBC News: A vast majority of aid isn't reaching civilians in Gaza, where tens of thousands have been killed, most of the population has been displaced and famine looms.
▪ The Hill: Trump said on Thursday that he would like to see foreign journalists granted access to the Gaza Strip by Israel.
▪ ABC News: The Brazilian government on Wednesday unveiled a plan to support local exporters affected by a 50 percent tariff imposed by Trump on several of the country's products.
SOCIAL SECURITY & MEDICAID: Trump worked Thursday to shore up GOP political vulnerabilities about Social Security protections amid a debate that has benefited Democrats politically for decades. In the Oval Office, the president ran through a list of customer service improvements his administration put in place at the Social Security Administration since January. He said on the 90th anniversary of the program that the administration's changes would expand services, preserve Social Security's future and help enroll beneficiaries.
Options to privatize Social Security surfaced again this month when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said new tax-deferred investment accounts dubbed ' Trump accounts ' may serve as a ' backdoor to privatization,' although the Treasury Department walked back those comments.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration experienced a temporary setback in court Thursday over its efforts to access Medicaid data to help find and arrest migrants without legal status. A federal judge on Thursday blocked the Health and Human Services Department from sharing sensitive Medicaid information with immigration officials.
HEALTH: Congress has been lukewarm about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s ideas about how to 'Make America Healthy Again' (MAHA). But in a bipartisan collection of states, some of Kennedy's ideas are catching fire, according to a detailed Politico report about nearly 900 health-related measures proposed outside of Washington. Meanwhile, there's money to be made from the MAHA movement as the Trump administration exerts unprecedented public pressure on the processed-food industry to change its formulas. Food companies want in.
Opinion
■ No matter its outcome, the meeting in Alaska will be a success for Putin, by Jacek Czaputowicz, opinion contributor, The Hill.
■ Putin should be careful what he wishes for, by Hanna Notte, guest essayist, The New York Times.
The Closer
And finally … 👏👏👏 Kudos to this week's Morning Report Quiz winners! With war and peace in mind, we looked for smart guesses about Alaska, the site of today's meetup between Trump and Putin.
Here's who went 4/4: Mark Roeddiger, Richard E. Baznik, Rick Schmidtke, Jeanne Kosch, Stanton Kirk, Mark R. Williamson, Laura Rettaliata, William Chittam, Chuck Schoenenberger, Linda Kavalsky, Peter Sprofera, Alan Johnson, Michael Askew, Harry Strulovici, Lynn Gardner, Phil Kirstein, Pam Manges, Steve Comer, Brian Hogan, Jim McElroy, John Trombetti, Steve James, Carmine Petracca, Jay Rockey, Julie Barnes, Linda L. Field, Savannah Petracca and Stan Wasser.
They knew that Czar Alexander II sold Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million in an 1867 transaction.
Alaska's largest export is seafood.
During the 2008 presidential contest, a remark — 'You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska' — inspired a famous joke on NBC's 'Saturday Night Live' (SNL) about former Gov. Sarah Palin (R) and foreign policy experience.
In 2021, top U.S. officials traveled to Alaska for two days of contentious talks with representatives from China.