The stakes of a potential Trump-Putin summit: From the Politics Desk
Happy Friday! In today's edition, we dig into a tentatively scheduled summit next week between President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Plus, Kristen Welker previews her interview this weekend with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. And Aria Bendix answers this week's reader question on the Trump administration's latest vaccine moves.
— Adam Wollner
Trump appears to hand Putin a diplomatic win with a tentatively scheduled summit
By Alexander Smith
Just when Ukraine and its European allies thought President Donald Trump was coming around to their view of the war, he appeared to give a huge win to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
For Kyiv, this was Trump's deadline to Putin: stop the fighting by Friday or face tough new economic sanctions. Instead, Trump has handed Moscow a diplomatic coup by agreeing to meet Putin face-to-face in a matter of days, their first encounter since the invasion of Ukraine.
Trump had initially suggested that such a summit would only go ahead if Putin agreed to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, something the Ukrainian president's administration has long called for but has been resisted by Russia. On Thursday, Trump dispelled the idea that they would have to get together — raising the specter of a bilateral negotiation that freezes out Kyiv.
The latest: Gabe Gutierrez and Monica Alba report that the meeting between Trump and Putin is tentatively scheduled for the end of next week. The location is still being discussed, a senior White House official said, but possibilities include the United Arab Emirates, Hungary, Switzerland and Rome.
Further details and logistics of the meeting are still unclear and remain very fluid, including whether Zelenskyy will be involved.
The stakes: 'The danger for Ukraine is actually quite grave,' said Jonathan Eyal, international director at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank. 'There will be a sense of alarm in European capitals.'
For Eyal and others, Ukraine's nightmare is now one step closer to reality: 'Trump will be so pleased by what he perceives as the great achievement of getting Putin to the negotiating table that he grabs any kind of offer that is made,' Eyal said. 'The danger of half-baked compromise, which Trump can claim as his main achievement, is very high.'
That compromise could be a temporary ceasefire that would allow Russia to restock its army and give its economy a break from international sanctions, according to Hope for Ukraine, a nonprofit organization based in Roseland, New Jersey.
Even if there is no truce agreement, 'a meeting with Trump — no matter the outcome — would be a big diplomatic victory for Putin,' Gabriella Ramirez, Hope for Ukraine's executive assistant, said in an email. 'Putin wants to break his diplomatic isolation,' and such a meeting 'will stroke his ego.'
Analysis by Kristen Welker
The redistricting fight has boiled over.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vowed Thursday in an interview with NBC News to call 'special session after special session after special session' until state Republicans can pass new maps to pad the party's majority in Congress, as Republicans ramp up their legal threats against the Democrats who fled the state to block their progress.
Democrats are vowing to push back. Governors like Illinois' JB Pritzker, California's Gavin Newsom and New York's Kathy Hochul are warning they may move forward on efforts to redraw their own states' districts to boost Democrats if Texas enacts new congressional lines.
This push by national Democrats to go 'nuclear' puts them in line with the fight that their voters have said they want to see from their leaders, at a time where poll after poll shows the party at its lowest marks with the American public in decades.
But it's a risky bet — potentially more so for Democrats than Republicans.
Democrats are up against a significant time crunch to get a special election onto the ballot this fall that could allow them to redraw maps in California. Hochul's tough talk in New York is chastened by the laws there, which require a lengthy legislative process that wouldn't likely lead to new maps until the 2028 elections. And Pritzker's float of a redraw in Illinois runs up against more practical concerns — can Democrats squeeze any more juice out of a congressional map that has 14 Democrats and three Republicans?
And if all these efforts are successful, creating a new world where America redraws its congressional districts constantly for short-term political gain, will that be the final nail in the coffin for the already endangered species of political moderates on Capitol Hill?
We'll discuss this issue and many more on Sunday's 'Meet the Press,' which includes exclusive interviews with Pritzker, former Attorney General Eric Holder and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
✉️ Mailbag: The impact of RFK's latest vaccine policies
Thanks to everyone who emailed us! This week's reader question is about Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s recent moves on vaccine funding:
'Will there be enough Covid and flu shots available this fall?'
To answer this, we turned to health reporter Aria Bendix:We're not anticipating any major supply issues right now. Kennedy's decision this week to cut $500 million in mRNA vaccine contracts doesn't apply to the current shots. Rather, he's slashing federal funds for research projects intended to develop new vaccines, such as inhaled Covid or flu vaccines or shots that protect against bird flu. mRNA vaccines are seen as a critical tool for the next pandemic, since they can be produced and updated quickly.
As far as this fall and winter are concerned, flu vaccine manufacturers have already begun shipping doses to health care providers and pharmacies in anticipation of flu season starting around October. And the FDA approved new formulations of the Covid vaccine to be rolled out later this year.
However, there may still be a few impediments to getting vaccinated: It's not clear whether insurers will cover Covid vaccines for healthy children or pregnant people after Kennedy said the CDC was no longer recommending them for these groups. And flu vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal — which made up a very small portion of last year's shots — won't be available, per a decision from a Kennedy-appointed vaccine advisory panel.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
10 minutes ago
- Axios
Spicy Senate fight
President Trump has added an unsolicited, high-profile confirmation fight to the Senate's plate when they're back from August recess. Why it matters: With a 140+ person backlog on civilian confirmations, Senate Republicans left Washington vowing to fast-track the rules. Senate GOP leaders told senators to be ready to move as soon as they return to D.C. in September, sources familiar tell us. Senators have suggested everything from shorter debate time to allowing more nominees to be voted on en bloc. 🌶 But the newest nominee's a doozy: Trump said yesterday he'll nominate Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics after he fired Erika McEntarfer. Zoom in: Antoni's confirmation process will first have to go through the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee which is chaired by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) Cassidy called McEntarfer's removal"understandable," and he had previously demanded answers as to why BLS's jobs reports were inaccurate. He's also up for re-election next year. But HELP includes frequent Trump critics: Sens. Susan Collins (R-Me.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). "BLS's years-long failure to produce reliable data — especially when that data has broad market-moving implications — is unacceptable," a Cassidy spokesperson told Axios. "Cassidy looks forward to meeting with Dr. Antoni to discuss how he will accomplish this."
Fox News
11 minutes ago
- Fox News
National Guard troops seen in DC amid Trump crackdown on crime in capital
The Trump administration has cited the city's crime rate for the surge in law enforcement.
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
US deficit grows to $291 billion in July despite tariff revenue surge
By David Lawder (Reuters) -The U.S. government's budget deficit grew nearly 20% in July to $291 billion despite a nearly $21 billion jump in customs duty collections from President Donald Trump's tariffs, with outlays growing faster than receipts, the Treasury Department said on Tuesday. The deficit for July was up 19%, or $47 billion, from July 2024. Receipts for the month grew 2%, or $8 billion, to $338 billion, while outlays jumped 10%, or $56 billion, to $630 billion, a record high for the month. The month of July this year had fewer business days than last year, so the Treasury Department said that adjusting for the difference would have increased receipts by about $20 billion, resulting in a deficit of about $271 billion. Net customs receipts in July grew to about $27.7 billion from about $7.1 billion in the year-earlier period due to higher tariff rates imposed by Trump, a Treasury official said. These collections were largely in line with the increase in June customs receipts after steady growth since April. Trump has touted the billions of dollars flowing into U.S. coffers from his tariffs, but the duties are paid by companies importing the goods, with some costs often passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. Consumer price index data on Tuesday showed increases in prices for some tariff-sensitive goods like furniture, footwear and auto parts, but they were offset by lower gasoline prices in the overall index. For the first 10 months of the fiscal year, customs duties totaled $135.7 billion, up $73 billion, or 116%, from the year-earlier period. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business Network's "Kudlow" program that the growing U.S. tariff revenue will make it difficult for the Supreme Court to rule against Trump's import taxes if a legal challenge to them makes its way to the country's top court. Ken Matheny, director of macroeconomics Yale University's Budget Lab, said it is unclear how much further monthly tariff revenue will grow, but the applied tariff rate measured by customs duties divided by the value of goods imports is still around 10%, lower than the current average tariff rate of about 18% based on the latest announcements. Significant numbers of firms are likely holding goods in bonded customs warehouses in the hope that negotiations will bring tariff rates down, but at some point those goods will enter the country, triggering duty payments, he said. "I suspect these numbers are showing us there is a sizable balance of imports where the duties haven't been recognized yet," Matheny said, adding that this could lead to a "temporary big surge in duties." The overall year-to-date budget results showed a $1.629 trillion deficit, up 7%, or $112 billion, from the same period a year earlier. Receipts were up 6%, or $262 billion, to $4.347 trillion, a record high for the 10-month period, while outlays grew 7%, or $374 billion, to $5.975 trillion, also a 10-month record. The year-to-date customs duties were more than eaten up by an increase of 10% or $141 billion in costs for government healthcare programs, including Medicare for seniors and Medicaid for the poor, to $1.557 trillion. The Social Security pension program, the largest single expense item, saw an increase of 9% or $108 billion over the first 10 months of fiscal 2025 to $1.368 trillion. Interest on the public debt also continued to grow, topping $1.01 trillion for the 10-month period, an increase of 6% or $57 billion over the prior year due to slightly higher interest rates and increased debt levels. Sign in to access your portfolio
