With Summit Over, What Are The Next Steps For Trump And Putin?

The Alaska summit has come to its quick end, but it was much shorter than was initially anticipated by the Russians.

Despite the inauspicious clothing decisions by Russian Foriegn Minister Sergei Lavrov, the summit started off with a roar. As in, the roar of the B-2 that went flying overhead with an escort as President Trump walked with Vladimir Putin on the tarmac.

Trump just flew a B-2 stealth bomber over Putin’s head…

Absolutely incredible. pic.twitter.com/2bsnssRv9f

— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) August 15, 2025

As we all know, the B-2 was the stealth fighter that just delivered a few bombs to the Iranian nuclear sites. This was both a power move and some expert trolling on Donald Trump’s part. But what happened behind closed doors during the summit?

Well, despite all the talking, we actually know very little about what was said between Trump and Putin. The two of them gave a joint press conference after, where several references to “progress” and “understanding” were mentioned – but no actual details.

Trump, 79, and Putin, 72, didn’t publicly mention any details of a preliminary “understanding” toward ending the long-running war, with the US leader saying he would be calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and key European allies to discuss negotiations.

“There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them,” Trump said at a media availability where neither he nor Putin took any questions.

“I would say a couple of big ones that we haven’t quite got there, but we’ve made some headway,” he added. “So there’s no deal until there’s a deal. I will call up NATO in a little while, I will call up the various people that I think are appropriate, and, of course, call up President Zelensky and tell them about today’s meeting. It’s ultimately up to them.”

Putin, like Trump, described the meeting as productive and claimed repeatedly that the men had made an “understanding” without providing any details.

The strongman added that he hoped “today’s understanding will be the starting point not only for the solution of the Ukrainian issue, but also will help us bring back business-like and pragmatic relations between Russia and the US.”

“I would like to hope that the understanding that we’ve reached together will help us bring closer that goal and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine,” Putin went on. “We expect that Kyiv and European capitals will perceive that constructively and that they won’t throw a wrench in the works.”

The one thing that Putin said – definitely mentioned in order to massage Trump’s ego, even though it is true – that made headlines during the joint presser was his assertion that if Trump had been president in 2022, there would have been no war.

“I’d like to remind you that in 2022, during the last contact with the previous administration, I tried to convince my previous American colleague the situation should not be brought to the point of no return when it would come to hostilities,” Putin said following his meeting with Trump. “And I said it quite directly back then.

”That’s a big mistake today, when President Trump is saying that if he was the president back then, there will be no war — and I’m quite sure that it would indeed be, so I can confirm that.”

As those of us who are more than five years old can remember, Biden’s weakness and failure in Afghanistan paved the way for Putin invading Ukraine. And at the time, the Biden administration said that if it was just a “little” invasion, then it wouldn’t be a big deal. But a weak president gave an inch, and a dictatorial strongman took way more than a mile. Putin would not have tested Trump in the same way, and now seeks to flatter him.

While the press began to bray that the entire summit was a “failure” because Trump didn’t get a ceasefire (his initial stated goal) and began dreaming about how Obama handled Putin (yes, the same Obama who promised “flexibility” for Russia and then watched Putin invade and occupy Crimea without doing anything), President Trump did a sit-down interview with Sean Hannity, where he was a little more open about what might happen next – and that includes a trilateral meeting between himself, Putin, and Volodymyr Zelensky.

BREAKING: President Trump says both Putin and Zelenskyy want him at the next meeting
 
Sean: “The next step, you had said, you wanted a meeting as quickly as possible, maybe with you, President Zelenskyy, and President Putin.”

Trump: “Well, they both want me there, and I’ll be… pic.twitter.com/oX9jO3O21P

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) August 16, 2025

The next steps in peace talks include calls between President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other NATO leaders. Trump told “Hannity” he would advise Zelenskyy to “make a deal.”

“They’re fighting a big war machine, and we, I think, are close to a deal, but I don’t like saying it. I always say, if I’m really close, I say 50-50 because so many things can happen. But I think President Putin would like to solve the problem, and it was a problem that should have never happened. This was a war. All of those families have lost somebody, and I have a book of thousands of people. They presented me with it today. Thousands of people, prisoners, that will get released. ”

Trump revealed that he is willing to be at a peace meeting between the Putin and Zelenskyy.

“Now, it’s really up to President Zelenskyy to get it done, and I would also say the European nations, they have to get involved a little bit, but it’s up to President Zelenskyy … and if they’d like, I’ll be at that next meeting,” he said. “They’re going to set up a meeting now between President Zelenskyy and President Putin and myself, I guess. You know, I didn’t ask about it … but I want to make sure it gets done and we have a pretty good chance of getting it done.”

While Trump seemed to be deliberately “quiet” (as several former and current politicians observed) about what happened during the summit, Putin was even more so.

By all means wait for the reporting on what was discussed or agreed or not, but… the luncheon was nixed, as was Putin’s interview with Fox. A grand bargain solidified usually goes the other way. The Russians not luxuriating in the moment, as you’d expect if they got even half…

— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) August 15, 2025

White House officials also said that President Trump hand-delivered a letter from First Lady Melania Trump to Vladimir Putin, raising the question of the Ukrainian children that Russia has abducted. If Putin is playing a long game of flattery, there are those in the White House who are going to keep raising uncomfortable questions for the Russian dictator – and keep reminding the president of the reality on the ground in Ukraine.

As for the press who are all twisted up because the summit ended without a ceasefire, has everyone forgotten the Cold War? How many summits did President Reagan sit through with Mikhail Gorbachev before any kind of agreements were reached? Four. This is the pattern of diplomacy. Obviously, time is much more of the essence because an active shooting war is happening, but Trump cannot commit to anything without Ukraine and Zelensky, and Putin is not going to commit to anything before he knows what Trump can talk Zelensky into. The next step will be the trilateral summit, and that will take time – and even MORE diplomacy – to arrange.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click

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