Speculation over an imminent Trump-Putin summit is over. The Kremlin stated Tuesday there is “no precise timeframe” for a meeting, and a US official separately confirmed there are “no plans” for one in the “immediate future.”
This puts an end to the narrative President Trump initiated last week. After a call with Putin, Trump posted on social media that a meeting in Budapest was just two weeks away.
Trump’s announcement led to a “productive” phone call on Monday between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss the potential summit.
A US official, speaking anonymously, said that despite the productive call, a follow-up in-person meeting between the foreign ministers was “not necessary.”
This abrupt change of plans is the latest from Trump, who boasts of his ability to end the Ukraine war due to his “personal chemistry” with Putin, even as he was scheduled to meet Ukraine’s president to discuss providing long-range Tomahawk missiles.