President Donald Trump’s self-imposed two-week timeline for meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin has collapsed, with a US official confirming Tuesday that no such gathering is planned for the immediate future. The announcement highlights the gap between Trump’s public statements and actual diplomatic planning.
The change in plans follows a Monday telephone conversation between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, which was originally intended to facilitate arrangements for a presidential summit. However, American officials have now concluded that no additional in-person meeting between the foreign ministers is necessary, effectively shelving immediate plans for a Trump-Putin encounter.
A US administration official, speaking anonymously, characterized the Rubio-Lavrov phone call as “productive,” suggesting meaningful dialogue occurred despite the absence of concrete summit plans. Russian officials have echoed this uncertainty, with the Kremlin stating Tuesday that there is no “precise timeframe” for organizing a meeting between Trump and Putin.
The timeline confusion began last Thursday following a telephone conversation between Trump and Putin that the American president initially celebrated as progress. Trump’s interpretation of the call led him to announce on social media that he would meet Putin within two weeks in Budapest, timing the announcement to occur just before his planned discussion with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about providing Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles capable of striking deep into Russian territory.
Trump’s approach to Putin has been marked by sudden policy reversals, including the August decision to welcome Putin to Alaska for the Russian leader’s first visit to Western soil since initiating the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. While Trump has repeatedly claimed his personal rapport with Putin would allow him to end the war within a day of returning to the White House, he has recently expressed frustrations in dealing with the Russian president.