Trump says 25% odds Putin meeting ends in FAILURE as he's accused of selling out to Russia with minerals deal to stop war

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

President Donald Trump said Thursday that there's a '25 percent' chance his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is a failure.
Trump gave those odds during a phone interview Thursday morning with Brian Kilmeade, as part of his Fox News radio show.
The president leaves first thing Friday for his meeting with Putin, which is taking place in Anchorage, Alaska.
Trump played coy when asked by Kilmeade what he might offer Putin to entice him to stop his three and a half year assault on neighboring Ukraine.
'Well, I'd rather not say,' the president answered. 'Because I don't want to play my hand in public.'
He said there were 'economics incentives and disincentives' and that the disincentives were 'maybe more important in a way.'
'You know, Russia's got tremendous potential,' Trump continued. 'They have the largest piece of land by far. Massive.'
The Telegraph reported Wednesday night that Trump planned to incentivize Putin by offering him access to rare earth minerals, which garnered the president criticism from anti-Trump former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger.
'What an absolute weak a** sellout,' Kinzinger posted Wednesday night to X.
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment on the Telegraph's report.
During his call with Kilmeade, Trump tempered expectations for the meeting, which marks the first time a U.S. president is meeting face-to-face with Putin since the Russian leader invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
'I don't know if we're going to get an immediate ceasefire,' Trump said.
He reiterated that he hoped the Alaska meeting would eventually set up a 'peace deal' and would open the door to there being a second meeting that would include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
'And depending on what happens with my meeting, I'm going to be calling President Zelensky and let's get him over to wherever we're going to meet,' Trump said.
'I don't know where we're going to have the second meeting but we have an idea of three different locations,' he revealed. 'Including the possibility, because it would be, by far, the easiest of staying in Alaska.'
Earlier Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the day would conclude with Trump and Putin side-by-side giving a press conference.
On Kilmeade's show, Trump said that plan wasn't set in stone.
'I'm going to have a press conference. I don't know if it's going to be a joint - we haven't even discussed it,' the president said. 'I think it might be nice to have a joint and then separates, so something like that will happen.'
'Or if the meeting doesn't end well, we'll have a press conference and head out, I'll head back to Washington,' the president added.
But Trump emphasized that the Alaska meeting 'sets up the second meeting.'
'The second meeting is going to be very important, because that's going to be a meeting where they can make a deal,' he said.
On a call with Zelensky and European leaders Wednesday, Trump was frank with Ukraine's president that there would likely need to be 'land swaps.'
Zelensky has resisted the idea of giving up any of Ukraine's territory to Putin.
'And I don't want to use the word divvy things up, but you know, to a certain extent, it's not a bad term, OK? But there will be a give and take as to boundaries, lands, etc. etc.,' Trump told the Fox News host.
'But there is a 25 percent chance this meeting will not be a successful meeting,' the president added.