Donald Trump’s grand plan to “end the war in Ukraine” is off to a rocky start, again. The former reality TV star turned president has reportedly hit a major snag in his attempt to broker peace with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, with a key meeting between top aides now “tabled,” according to CNN.
Just days ago, Trump was full of confidence, boasting that he and Putin were just weeks away from their long-awaited face-to-face summit in Budapest, Hungary. On October 16, he posted on Truth Social that the two leaders had “agreed” to hold a preparatory meeting between their top advisers. “The United States’ initial meetings will be led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, together with various other people, to be designated,” Trump wrote, noting that Russia’s veteran foreign minister Sergey Lavrov would be involved too.
However, it seems like those plans have gotten mixed up in smoke. White House insiders have told reporters that a pre-meeting, is being at work which is likely to lay the groundwork for the Trump-Putin peace talks, which have now been shelved. The reason? Apparently, both sides came to the table with completely different expectations. Russia, for its part, never actually confirmed any dates.
The Kremlin has since fired back. Lavrov called CNN’s report “unscrupulous” and insisted Moscow hadn’t changed its position “compared to the understandings that were reached during the Alaska summit.” He told Rubio the same thing on a phone call Monday, according to Reuters. A US State Department readout, meanwhile, said Rubio “emphasized the importance of upcoming engagements” and claimed the talks were still a “key opportunity” to push for Trump’s so-called “durable resolution” to the war.
Kremlin Shrugs, White House Spins
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov tried to play down the fiasco, saying, “We have an understanding of the presidents, but we cannot postpone what has not been finalized.” Translation? There was never a real plan to begin with. Trump has made “peace between Russia and Ukraine” a cornerstone of his second term, but so far, it’s been more chaos than diplomacy. Critics say Putin is toying with him, dangling the idea of a deal while tightening his grip on Ukraine.
The latest collapse comes after a string of humiliations for Trump on the world stage. Back in August, the much-hyped “Alaska summit” between Trump and Putin ended with smiles and photo ops, and then, just days later, Russia unleashed a deadly airstrike on Kyiv, killing 18 civilians.
The Zelensky Disaster
If that wasn’t enough, Trump’s recent meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went off the rails too. According to The Financial Times, the Oval Office encounter turned into a shouting match, or several. The paper described the pair as having more than one “shouting match,” with Trump “cursing all the time.”
At one point, Trump reportedly demanded Zelensky give up Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, a key demand of Moscow. He even refused to provide Tomahawk missiles, effectively leaving Ukraine in the lurch. On Sunday, Trump doubled down on his new stance, telling reporters aboard Air Force One: “It’s cut up right now. Leave it the way it is right now.”
“They can negotiate something later on down the line,” he added. “Stop at the battle line, go home, stop fighting, stop killing people.”
A “Bitter Blow” for Trump’s Big Plan
If confirmed, the breakdown of the adviser-level meeting would be another blow to Trump’s already shaky foreign policy strategy. Trump had bragged on Truth Social about his big plans for peace, declaring, “President Putin and I will then meet in an agreed upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end.” But for now, the only thing Trump seems to have ended is his own credibility as a dealmaker.
