Trump Fumbles, Says He’ll Go to Russia – Not Alaska – to Meet Putin

US President Donald Trump said he would go to Russia, not Alaska, to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Friday for the upcoming talks on Ukraine. 

Trump previously announced the talks would take place in Alaska, a US territory purchased from the Russian Empire in 1867. 

Trump, during a Monday press conference about his plan to deploy the National Guard to DC, made an offhand comment about going to Russia to meet Putin soon on Friday. 

“It’s embarrassing for me to be up here… You know, I’m gonna see Putin, I’m going to Russia on Friday. I don’t like being up here talking about how unsafe and how dirty and disgusting this once beautiful capital was,” Trump said. 

It is likely that Trump mixed up Alaska and Russia. Alaska was Russian territory before the US purchased it from Tsar Alexander II of Russia in the 19th century, but it became the 49th US state in 1959.

Later at the press conference, Trump also said he is grateful that Putin is “coming to our country.”

“I thought it was very respectful that the president of Russia is coming to our country, as opposed to us going to his country, or even a third-party place,” Trump added. 

Putin was reportedly enthusiastic about the planned trip to Alaska, a fact he mentioned to multiple world leaders during recent phone calls after the announcement of the talks. 

Other Topics of Interest

Russia Builds S-400 Site Near Putin Daughter's Foundation

Russia has deployed an S-400 air defense position less than 10 kilometers from the Kremlin, next to a science center linked to Vladimir Putin’s daughter.

Trump previously said the talks with Putin would likely center on what he called territorial swaps between Kyiv and Moscow, which would see Kyiv ceding territories to Moscow in exchange for the latter relinquishing claims over Ukrainian lands it does not fully control. 

Kyiv has firmly rejected the plans. 

President Volodymyr Zelensky has also not been invited to the planned Trump-Putin talks. 

If Trump had not misspoken and a visit to Russia comes to fruition, it would have marked Trump’s first trip to the country as US president. While Trump made business visits to Russia before entering politics, he has never visited Russia during either his first or current term in office.

His time in Moscow as a businessman has also been at the center of allegations regarding his potential ties to Russia, with some accusing him of being a Russian asset.