Topline
Several documents with U.S. State Department markings revealing undisclosed details about President Donald Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin were discovered in an Alaska hotel, NPR reported Saturday, including locations and meeting times of the summit and contact information for U.S. officials.
One of the documents indicated Trump planned to give the Russian president an “American Bald Eagle Desk Statue.”
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Key Facts
Three guests at Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage, Alaska, located near the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson where Putin and Trump convened, found eight pages that appeared to be produced by State Department officials in one of the hotel’s public printers, NPR reported, citing images of the documents.
The first page detailed the sequence of meetings between Russian and U.S. officials on Friday, including the names of rooms inside the Anchorage base, and that Trump planned to give Putin an “American Bald Eagle Desk Statue.”
Other pages featured the names and phone numbers of three U.S. government staff members, the names of U.S. and Russian state leaders and their phonetic pronunciations, while pages six and seven described how lunch—held in “honor of his excellency Vladimir Putin”—would be served at the summit.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Surprising Fact
The first document indicated a joint press conference between Trump and Putin was scheduled to last for one hour between 3:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. local time. The press conference concluded after roughly 12 minutes.
What To Watch For
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday he would meet with Trump in Washington, D.C., on Monday, though specifics about the meeting have not been announced. Trump wrote on Truth Social another meeting would be scheduled with Putin “if all works out” with Zelensky, who has requested involvement in peace talks.
Key Background
Trump said he was optimistic he and Putin were “going to make a deal” during their Alaska summit. After their meeting, Trump said no peace deal was reached between Russia and Ukraine, suggesting he and Putin made “headway” and “great progress” in their discussions. Putin told reporters that Russia still held concerns in Ukraine that needed to be addressed before peace could be achieved. Trump previously said Russia would face “economically severe” consequences if Putin failed to make progress toward a ceasefire agreement. Trump said Saturday a “mere ceasefire agreement” was no longer the goal in peace talks, claiming it was “determined by all” that the “best way” to end Russia’s war with Ukraine “is to go directly to a peace agreement.” Some Ukrainian officials criticized Trump’s shifting away from a ceasefire deal as siding with Putin’s demands.