President Donald Trump said Thursday that there’s a ’25 percent’ chance his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is a failure.
Trump gave those odds during a phone interview Thursday morning with Brian Kilmeade, as part of his Fox News radio show.
The president leaves first thing Friday for his meeting with Putin, which is taking place in Anchorage, Alaska.
Trump played coy when asked by Kilmeade what he might offer Putin to entice him to stop his three and a half year assault on neighboring Ukraine.
‘Well, I’d rather not say,’ the president answered. ‘Because I don’t want to play my hand in public.’
He said there were ‘economics incentives and disincentives’ and that the disincentives were ‘maybe more important in a way.’
‘You know, Russia’s got tremendous potential,’ Trump continued. ‘They have the largest piece of land by far. Massive.’
The Telegraph revealed on Wednesday evening that Trump intended to engage Putin by offering him access to rare earth minerals. This move drew criticism from Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican representative known for his anti-Trump stance.
President Donald Trump (left) set measured expectations before his upcoming Friday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin (right), noting there’s a ’25 percent’ likelihood it might not succeed.
The American and Russian leader will meed mid-day Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson located in Anchorage, Alaska
‘What an absolute weak a** sellout,’ Kinzinger posted Wednesday night to X.
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment on the Telegraph’s report.
Asked specifically about whether he was prepared to offer Putin access to rare earth minerals to get a deal, Trump didn’t take it off the table.
‘We are going to see what happens,’ he responded during an event on Social Security in the Oval Office Thursday afternoon.
In a call with Kilmeade, Trump moderated expectations for the meeting, marking the first in-person discussion between a U.S. president and Putin since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
‘I don’t know if we’re going to get an immediate ceasefire,’ Trump said.
He expressed the hope that the Alaska meeting could pave the way for a ‘peace deal,’ potentially setting the stage for a follow-up meeting that would involve Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump mentioned, ‘Depending on how my meeting unfolds, I plan to call President Zelensky so we can arrange for him to join us wherever our next meeting might be.’
During a press session in the Oval Office, President Trump remained non-committal when asked if he would offer Putin access to rare earth minerals as part of a deal to resolve the Ukraine conflict.
‘I don’t know where we’re going to have the second meeting, but we have an idea of three different locations,’ he revealed. ‘Including the possibility, because it would be, by far, the easiest of staying in Alaska.’
Earlier Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the day would conclude with Trump and Putin side-by-side giving a press conference.
But on Kilmeade’s show, Trump said that plan wasn’t set in stone.
‘I’m going to have a press conference. I don’t know if it’s going to be a joint – we haven’t even discussed it,’ the president said. ‘I think it might be nice to have a joint and then separates, so something like that will happen.’
‘Or if the meeting doesn’t end well, we’ll have a press conference and head out, I’ll head back to Washington,’ the president added.
But Trump emphasized that the Alaska meeting ‘sets up the second meeting.’
‘The second meeting is going to be very important, because that’s going to be a meeting where they can make a deal,’ he said.
On a call with Zelensky and European leaders on Wednesday, Trump was frank with Ukraine’s president that there would likely need to be ‘land swaps.’
Zelensky has resisted the idea of giving up any of Ukraine’s territory to Putin.
‘And I don’t want to use the word divvy things up, but you know, to a certain extent, it’s not a bad term, OK? But there will be a give and take as to boundaries, lands, etc. etc.,’ Trump told the Fox News host.
‘But there is a 25 percent chance this meeting will not be a successful meeting,’ the president added.
