Trump says ‘first two minutes’ of Ukraine summit with Putin will determine if there’s going to be a deal

WASHINGTON, DC: As antic­i­pa­tion builds around the upcom­ing Alas­ka sum­mit, Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump has offered an ear­ly glimpse into his pre­dic­tions.

Dur­ing a press con­fer­ence on Mon­day, August 11, Trump con­fi­dent­ly claimed he would know with­in the first two min­utes of meet­ing Vladimir Putin whether a peace deal between Rus­sia and Ukraine could be reached.

The sum­mit comes in the wake of a meet­ing between Trump’s envoy, Steven Witkoff, and Putin, a dis­cus­sion that quick­ly drew scruti­ny amid reports that Witkoff may have mis­un­der­stood the Russ­ian leader’s com­ments. Notably, Ukrain­ian Pres­i­dent Volodymyr Zelen­sky has not been invit­ed to the sum­mit.

Trump says he’ll know quickly if a peace deal is possible

Don­ald Trump assert­ed that he would be able to tell with­in the “first two min­utes” of his upcom­ing meet­ing with Vladimir Putin whether a peace deal between Rus­sia and Ukraine is pos­si­ble.

“We’re going to have a meet­ing with Vladimir Putin, and at the end of that meet­ing, prob­a­bly in the first two min­utes, I’ll know exact­ly whether or not a deal can be made,” Trump told reporters dur­ing a Mon­day press con­fer­ence. When asked how he would deter­mine that so quick­ly, he respond­ed con­fi­dent­ly, “Because that’s what I do. I make deals.”

How­ev­er, Trump appeared to walk back that claim moments lat­er, sug­gest­ing the out­come was beyond his con­trol. “I’m not going to make a deal. It’s not up to me to make a deal. I think a deal should be made for both,” he said.

The pres­i­dent is sched­uled to meet with Putin this Fri­day in Alas­ka for the much-antic­i­pat­ed sum­mit, where the two lead­ers are expect­ed to dis­cuss poten­tial solu­tions to the war in Ukraine, which began with Russia’s inva­sion in Feb­ru­ary 2022

What did Trump say about Zelensky’s attendance at the Alaska summit?

Dur­ing the press con­fer­ence, Don­ald Trump briefly appeared to con­fuse the loca­tion of his upcom­ing meet­ing with Vladimir Putin, mis­tak­en­ly telling reporters he would be trav­el­ing to Rus­sia, rather than to Alas­ka, known as “The Last Fron­tier.”

He also men­tioned that Ukrain­ian Pres­i­dent Zelen­sky could attend the talks but ques­tioned whether his pres­ence would con­tribute to reach­ing a peace agree­ment.

He wasn’t a part of it,” Trump said. “I would say he could go, but he’s been to a lot of meet­ings. You know, he’s been there for three and a half years. Noth­ing hap­pened.”

The 79-year-old added that if a “fair” deal were reached, he would inform both the Euro­pean Union and Zelen­sky, whom he said he would call first “out of respect.” As for what he might say, Trump remarked, “And I may say, ‘Lots of luck, keep fight­ing.’ Or I may say, ‘We can make a deal’”

Internet reacts to Trump’s claims about upcoming Alaska summit

The video of Don­ald Trump claim­ing he would know with­in the first two min­utes of his meet­ing with Vladimir Putin whether a peace deal is pos­si­ble went viral, spark­ing wide­spread reac­tion across the inter­net.

One user mocked, “Sounds like he’s very famil­iar at 2 minute end­ings,” and anoth­er quipped, “With­in the first 2 min­utes, he’ll give him anoth­er 2 weeks.”

A per­son joked, “Trump will be asleep in 2 min­utes,” while some­one else added, “So don’t let it drag out because you will know in two min­utes — sim­i­lar to the tar­iffs — yes or no — no time to nego­ti­ate with Putin — two min­utes just phone him — unless you have oth­er things to say to Putin which is pri­vate lol.”

One more wrote, “In the first 2 min­utes Putin will tell Trump what to do and Trump will bow to his demands,” while some­one who was skep­ti­cal said, “He thinks he’s going to Rus­sia so I doubt he’ll know any­thing

On the oth­er hand, a sup­port­er of Trump remarked, “Trump don’t need hours of back­room talkin, he sizes a man up quick, always has. Two min­utes with Putin and he’ll know which way the wind’s blowin. That’s how deals get made when grown-ups are in charge. Alas­ka ain’t just a loca­tion, it’s a sig­nal, far from D.C., clos­er to real­i­ty. And reality’s where Trump does his best work