White House plays down prospects for quick Putin-Trump meeting

Kate Sullivan and Eric Martin, Bloomberg News on Oct 21, 2025

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has no plans to meet President Vladimir Putin in the immediate future, a White House official said, offering a more downbeat tone after the two sides suggested earlier that a second summit between the two leaders would happen soon.

The official, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations, said a call between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday had been productive, and a meeting between the two officials also wasn’t necessary.

The statement, while lacking in detail, contrasted with remarks Trump made after speaking with Putin by phone last week. At the time he said he would meet Putin “within two weeks or so” and that Rubio and Lavrov would meet “pretty soon.”

The shift fit with similar remarks out of Russia, where the Kremlin also sought to tamp down expectations for a quick summit. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “the work ahead will be challenging,” according to the Interfax news service. “Preparation, serious preparation, is needed.”

Trump has ratcheted up his calls to end the war in recent days, urging the two sides to stop the war “at the battle line.” On Monday, he cast doubt on Ukraine’s ability to defeat Russian forces, and he’s also equivocated over military aid to Ukraine and the threat of new sanctions on Russia.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Washington last Friday to try to persuade Trump to send Ukraine Tomahawk missiles and other support. But Putin got to Trump with a phone call the day before that meeting, and the two leaders agreed to meet in Budapest, Hungary.

At the time, Trump acknowledged that the prospect of a Budapest summit might be part of an effort by Putin to stall for time, especially after an August summit between the two men made no progress on ending the conflict. But Trump shrugged off concerns that Putin may be manipulating him and insisted the Kremlin wants to end the conflict that’s well into its fourth year.