Trump Says Meeting With Putin Now Could Be a 'Waste'

White House shelves summit as Trump shifts Ukraine strategy
Posted Oct 22, 2025 12:00 AM CDT
Trump Says Meeting With Putin Now Could Be a 'Waste'
FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, gives a soccer ball to President Donald Trump during a press conference after their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018.   (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

After the White House revealed the expected Trump-Putin summit would not be happening, President Trump gave some insight into why that might be, the Wall Street Journal reports. "I don't want to have a wasted meeting. I don't want to have a waste of time—so we'll see what happens," Trump said Tuesday at the White House. He also told reporters he would outline his latest strategy for ending the Russia-Ukraine war within two days and suggested both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky want the war to end. News that the meeting was shelved came after Trump said last week that a meeting in Budapest was forthcoming. A Kremlin rep also said Tuesday that "serious preparation" is necessary before such a meeting could take place, the AP reports.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio's recent call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reportedly reinforced the Kremlin's insistence that Ukraine cede the entire Donbas region as part of any peace deal. Rubio, also Trump's national security adviser, subsequently advised the administration that a summit would likely not advance negotiations at this time. Lavrov reiterated on Tuesday that Russia's demands remain unchanged and that Moscow continues to seek a comprehensive peace agreement rather than a simple ceasefire—a position critics say is a pretext for prolonging the war.

Trump, who has oscillated in his approach to the war, recently weighed sending long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine but pulled back after his call with Putin last week. In a recent meeting with Zelensky, Trump informed Zelensky that no Tomahawks would be delivered in the near future, and urged a freeze in the conflict along current battle lines, a stance short of Russia's demands.

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