A potential summit between President Trump and Vladimir Putin is not in the “immediate future,” officials from both the US and Russia confirmed on Tuesday.
This clarification was needed after President Trump, following a Thursday phone call with Putin, took to social media to announce a meeting in Budapest within two weeks.
In an attempt to follow through, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a “productive” telephone discussion with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday.
However, an anonymous Trump administration official said Tuesday that no further in-person meeting between the diplomats was “necessary.” The official then definitively stated there are “no plans” for a presidential meeting.
The Kremlin’s spokesperson offered a similar message, telling reporters there is “no precise timeframe” for a summit. This development is the latest abrupt shift by Trump, who has acknowledged frustrations with Putin despite hosting him in Alaska in August.
