PUBLISHED on August 13, 2025, 2:10 PM EDT – Key Points and Summary – As the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska approaches, fears are mounting in Ukraine and Europe of a repeat of the disastrous 2018 Helsinki meeting.
-While the White House is downplaying the talks as a “listening exercise,” analysts and former officials warn it has the “smell of the Yalta Conference,” where a deal could be made over Ukraine’s head.
-With fewer Russia hawks advising him, there is concern that President Trump will be outmaneuvered by Putin and present Kyiv with a “take it or leave it” peace plan that cements Russian gains.
The Alaska Summit: A Big Mistake?
We now know, at least, where U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will be meeting on Friday.
Per NBC News, the meeting will take place at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. It had been known for days that the leaders would be meeting in Alaska, but it had not been made clear where the meeting would take place.
The much bigger question is exactly what might happen at the meeting.
On Wednesday, CNBC reported that the White House is trying to “tame” expectations for the Friday meeting, with the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt positioning the meeting as “a listening exercise for the president.”
But in Ukraine, and in European capitals, there are fears that Trump will be routed by Putin in the meeting, or perhaps come out of it with some kind of peace plan that will be presented to Ukraine in “take it or leave it” style.
A “Recipe For Disaster”?
An analysis in The Guardian pointed to past Trump/Putin meetings, including the 2018 Helsinki summit in Trump’s first term, to speculate that this exact scenario will come to pass.
“By the time he came out of the room, Trump looked dazzled by the Kremlin leader. Asked at a press conference about the conclusions of the US intelligence community that Russia had interfered in the elections, Trump said: ‘President Putin says it’s not Russia. I don’t see any reason why it would be,” Andrew Roth writes for The Guardian.
This statement horrified many Americans, and then-Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called it a “disgraceful performance.”
Trump’s aides had also written “DO NOT CONGRATULATE” in the president’s notes about Putin’s questionable election victory that year, but Trump congratulated him anyway.
The Russian president “wants a deal with Trump that will be presented to Kyiv and other European capitals as a fait accompli,” John Herbst, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and a former ambassador to Ukraine, wrote this week for the Atlantic Council. The meeting, he added, “has the smell of the Yalta Conference in 1945 … where the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom decided the fate of half of Europe over the heads of those nations.”
Putin’s Plan for Alaska Summit
The New York Times, meanwhile, in its own analysis, also looked back at the Helsinki meeting and discussed the possibility of a repeat. The two men met six times in Trump’s first term, not including phone calls, while Putin met Joe Biden just once during Biden’s presidency.
“With Mr. Putin pressing peace proposals that heavily favor Russia, many analysts and former Trump officials worry that he will once again turn a meeting with Mr. Trump to his advantage,” the Times said.
“Since the blowup between Trump and Zelensky in the Oval Office, Europeans, Ukrainians and Ukraine’s supporters inside the administration have cobbled together a policy of helping Ukraine stay in the fight and preventing the lurch by Trump to embrace Russia’s view of the conflict,” Andrew Weiss, the vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told the Times.
“The real test on Friday will be how much of that policy survives the first in-person contact between Trump and Putin in his second term.”
The Times also noted that while Trump was surrounded by lots of Russia hawks during his first presidency, that is not so much the case now, when he has fewer people who might attempt to talk him out of concessions to Putin.
In addition, Maria Snegovaya, a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Times that Trump doesn’t have a great history in this type of situation.
“In general, Trump’s history of meetings with strong men from Xi Jinping to Kim Jong-un does not lead to a successful deal that follows,” she said.
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
Military Matters
The F-22 Raptor Just Keeps Getting Better
Pingback: Putin Might Pitch a 'Geopolitical Armistice' in Alaska - National Security Journal