A Trump administration official on Tuesday walked back the president’s recent claims of an impending summit with Vladimir Putin. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official stated there are “no plans for President Trump to meet with President Putin in the immediate future.”
This statement is a direct reversal of President Trump’s announcement last week. Following a phone call with Putin on Thursday, Trump posted on social media that a summit in Budapest would happen within two weeks.
The president’s announcement had mobilized diplomats, leading to a “productive” call on Monday between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
However, the administration official clarified that after this call, a follow-up in-person meeting between the diplomats was deemed “not necessary,” and no presidential meeting was scheduled.
The Kremlin’s spokesperson reinforced this on Tuesday, stating that “no precise timeframe” for a summit currently exists. This change comes as Trump was also scheduled to meet Ukraine’s President Zelensky to discuss providing Tomahawk missiles capable of striking deep into Russia.