Trump says Putin is ‘going to make a deal’

CNN

US President Donald Trump said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is heading into Friday’s Alaska summit wanting to make a deal to end the war in Ukraine.   The president kept expectations for the meeting high after White House officials earlier this week downplayed the face-to-face session as a “listening exercise.” #CNN #News  # news #breaking #24x7

Transcript

00:00On the eve of his crucial summit with Vladimir Putin, President Trump is setting the bar low, and then high, and then low again.

00:08Here's what he said just this morning on the Brian Kilmeade Show.

00:12I believe now he's convinced that he's going to make a deal. He's going to make a deal. I think he's going to, and we're going to find out.

00:19I'm going to know very quickly, but there is a 25% chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting,

00:24in which case I will run the country, and we have made America great again already in six months.

00:32And you'll hit them with consequences, right? You'll hit them with more sanctions.

00:35The Senate sanctions go front and center if he disrespe... Yeah?

00:40Oh, sure. If it's not solved, look, again, we didn't lose any soldiers. We didn't lose anybody.

00:49But this was a war. If I didn't get in here, this could have been World War III.

00:52That came just hours after these comments from President Putin in Moscow.

01:01To tell you about the stage we are at with the current American administration,

01:06which, as everyone knows, is making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities,

01:12stop the crisis, and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict,

01:17in order to create long-term conditions for peace between our countries and in Europe.

01:22And in the world as a whole, if by the next stages we reach agreements in the area of control over strategic offensive weapons.

01:31CNN's Elena Trin is at the White House.

01:34Elena, what are you learning about the preps in the building behind you for this really important meeting?

01:41Yeah, we're getting a lot more details, Dana, of what this is actually going to look like,

01:48and what the parameters that the president believes need to be set as he heads into it.

01:52One is, we know, of course, the location of it's going to be at Joint Base Elmendorf in Anchorage.

01:57But they both said, both the Kremlin, but also President Donald Trump and his White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt,

02:04that they expect there to be a joint press conference between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin tomorrow after all of this ends,

02:11which in itself is incredibly notable that this is going to be, you know,

02:15we're going to see Putin standing potentially alongside Donald Trump here, speaking to reporters.

02:20That will come after, though, the one-on-one meeting between the two of them,

02:25and then also follows a bilateral lunch between both the leaders and their respective delegations.

02:31And just to get into, I think it's so important what you've touched on about the expectation setting as we head into this summit,

02:37because so far this week we've really seen the White House and even the president himself try to keep the expectations low.

02:44You've heard the White House Press Secretary argue that this is a listening exercise for President Donald Trump.

02:49Trump himself said that he doesn't believe it's up to him to make a deal.

02:53But now he's saying two important things from that interview.

02:56He said, one, he doesn't know if they're going to get an immediate ceasefire.

02:59And he also said he believes that the Russian president is convinced that he's going to get a deal.

03:05This comes, of course, as we know, European allies of the United States

03:08and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made very clear on that call with President Donald Trump yesterday

03:14that they believe any decisions, any potential deal needs,

03:19they need to have a seat at the table before that can happen

03:21and also that an immediate ceasefire is necessary before they can move forward.

03:25Now, what we also heard President Donald Trump say to Brian Kilmeade in that radio interview

03:30is that he believes that this one, this first meeting is,

03:34the most important part is getting a second meeting.

03:36And he wants there to be a second meeting.

03:38He said even potentially having them stay in Alaska and having Zelenskyy join.

03:43But at the same time, we're also hearing that, you know,

03:45he believes in the first few minutes of that meeting,

03:47he'll know whether or not it's successful.

03:49He said that he believes there's a 25% chance that this could end in failure.

03:54So still trying, I guess, to keep the expectations somewhere in the middle

03:58despite kind of raising them with what he believes Putin is looking for here.

04:02Yeah, it's a lot of raising, lowering, raising, lowering.

04:05We'll obviously see what actually happens when they meet face-to-face.

04:10Thank you so much for that reporting, Elena.

04:11And I'm joined here by a terrific group of reporters, CNN's Phil Mattingly,

04:16Margaret Tala of Axios, and CNN's Kylie Atwood.

04:20Kylie, I want to read to our viewers some of your awesome reporting

04:23that's out on CNN.com this morning.

04:26Putin thinks he's winning, so he has no reason to bend,

04:29said one person familiar with recent U.S. intelligence assessments.

04:33His thinking is he might as well pocket the wins he has now,

04:37including the Ukrainian territory he has already taken by force,

04:41and then make another run to take more later.

04:45Yeah, U.S. intelligence officials don't believe that Putin's overall objectives

04:50when it comes to Ukraine have greatly changed over the last few months.

04:54There's some indications that there might be a short-term softening in his goals,

04:58an openness to getting some of those territorial wins

05:03and actually pocketing them, getting some economic deals with the United States.

05:08But overall, the perspective is much more pessimistic,

05:11that he's still focused on this maximalist perspective

05:14when it comes to gaining Ukrainian territory.

05:18And we have heard as such from Russian officials over the last few days.

05:22They've talked about the territories that they have made military gains in,

05:26wanting to have control of the entirety of those territories,

05:29which would mean Ukraine ceding territory

05:31that they haven't even lost to date during this war.

05:34So what we don't know is how much President Trump

05:37is actually taking these intelligence assessments into account

05:41when he heads into this meeting,

05:42because he personally has been very optimistic

05:46that he will be able to tell in the first two minutes, in his words,

05:50if President Putin is actually willing to make a deal or not.

05:56The way I'm looking at this is just that there is this underlying asymmetry

05:59to what is going to unfold tomorrow,

06:03which is that President Trump wants to make a deal.

06:06That's his incentive.

06:08Americans, many Americans who are swing voters who voted for him

06:11are saying, we thought prices were going to go down,

06:13we thought he was going to solve wars in one day,

06:15we're not seeing the things he promised.

06:17So that's the domestic political pressure he faces.

06:19Putin wants to lock in his gains.

06:22And the two entities that are impacted most by this,

06:25which is Vladimir Zelensky and Europe,

06:28are not actually at the table right now at this moment

06:31and are not actually in the room.

06:33So I think what, I don't want to prejudge anything.

06:36We won't know how President Trump wants to play this

06:38until it unfolds and what he would consider,

06:40you know, a win for himself.

06:42But what might be a domestic political win for Donald Trump

06:45may in no way align with what would be existentially like okay

06:50for the Ukrainian leader.

06:52And so I just, that is what surrounds the uncertainty

06:55heading into this summit.

06:57Yeah, and I think it gets to an important point

06:58that people need to keep in perspective

06:59as they try and frame what's about to happen.

07:02This is the first of, in a best case scenario,

07:05a very lengthy multi-step, multi-meeting,

07:08multi-lateral process that hasn't even started yet

07:11and has spent years unable to begin

07:13because of where President Putin has been up to this point.

07:17I think what's so striking, though,

07:18thinking about this moment is, you know,

07:20you show the clips from the July 2018

07:22joint press conference in Helsinki.

07:24Were you there?

07:24I was.

07:25Yeah, you were there.

07:25I was on Capitol Hill, and I'll never forget,

07:28as much as the first term blurs together

07:30into, like, just blurs days continuously,

07:34walking down from my office in the Capitol

07:37to talk to lawmakers at votes after that press conference

07:40and seeing their faces.

07:42Because the president said he trusted Russian intelligence.

07:45It was a moment that, like, you could see

07:48his closest allies in the Republican Party,

07:50of which there were much fewer back then

07:51than there are now, I'll grant that,

07:52were so stunned by the tone he took,

07:55the frame he took, the side he took,

07:57which was largely President Putin's.

07:58And I think it's important to remember

08:00that this is a president that is now in a second term,

08:02has experienced four years in office,

08:04is much more confident in how he operates,

08:06and I'll be fascinated to see

08:07how that dynamic plays out compared to 2018.

08:10Such a good point, and I'm so glad you brought that up

08:13because it was certainly a moment that's indelible.

08:18Even though he has clearly learned a lot,

08:21his approach to Vladimir Putin

08:24or his reaction to Putin just in the last six months

08:27has gone up and down.

08:30Let's just look at it a little bit.

08:31This is starting in February of this year,

08:34so just, I think it was just two or three weeks

08:37after he was inaugurated,

08:39what President Trump said about Vladimir Putin.

08:43He wants it to end.

08:45He doesn't want to end it

08:46and then go back to fighting six months later.

08:48I think I do know how to end the war.

08:51Despite the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax,

08:53I've always had a good relationship with Putin.

08:55I'm not happy with what Putin's doing.

08:58He's killing a lot of people,

08:59and I don't know what the hell happened to Putin.

09:01I've known him a long time.

09:02We get a lot of bullsh** thrown at us by Putin

09:05for you want to know the truth.

09:07He's very nice all the time,

09:08but it turns out to be meaningless.

09:11President Putin, I believe,

09:12wants to see peace,

09:14and Zelensky wants to see peace.

09:17Kylie.

09:18As that evolution happened,

09:21we have reported that Trump

09:22was actually asking people around him

09:24what changed in Putin,

09:26because he thinks that something

09:27has fundamentally changed

09:29about the Russian leader

09:30that he dealt with

09:30in the first Trump administration.

09:32He was asking Europeans about this.

09:34He was asking White House aides about this.

09:35One rationale he was given

09:37that's at least personally responsible,

09:39they said, was the COVID pandemic

09:41when President Putin was really isolated

09:44and became really paranoid.

09:46But it's clear that President Trump

09:48is publicly talking about

09:52how frustrated he has grown with Putin

09:54and privately trying to figure out

09:55what has happened here.

09:57I also think it's worth noting,

09:59just coming back to the point

10:00of what we're going to see come out of this,

10:01because we really don't know,

10:03neither President Trump or President Putin

10:05have laid out clear objectives for this meeting.

10:08The clearest person on that

10:09has been President Zelensky.

10:10And to Margaret's point,

10:12he's not going to be in the room tomorrow.

10:14So when President Trump says earlier today

10:16that a ceasefire immediately

10:18might not actually come,

10:19he wants a full peace deal.

10:21Well, what is the first step

10:22towards that peace deal in his mind?

10:24We genuinely don't know.

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