Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list inclu...
President Donald Trump‘s face-to-face high-stakes summit with President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday could determine the fate of European security as well as the trajectory of the war in Ukraine. The exclusion of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy already deals a heavy blow to the West’s policy of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”
Washington, D.C.’s police department, now potentially in open conflict with federal forces over the terms of Trump’s takeover of security in the nation’s capital, with the DEA administrator now named “emergency police chief,” a declaration that city leaders say has no basis in law. The attorney general’s declaration came after a dispute over how much help police would provide in arresting immigrants.
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Trump says ‘he would walk’ if Putin meeting doesn’t go well
In a snippet from an interview aboard Air Force One with Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier posted on X, Trump predicted that his meeting with the Russian president would “work out very well — and if it doesn’t, I’m going to head back home real fast.”
“I would walk, yeah,” he added, after a follow up question from Baier.
Friday afternoon on social media, Trump posted a video clip from a gaggle also aboard the plane, in which he was asked what would make the summit a success.
“I want to see a ceasefire rapidly. I don’t know if it’s going to be today but I’m not going to be happy if it’s not today,” Trump told reporters, as he stood in an aisle of the plane. “I’m in this to stop the killing.”
Trump: ‘HIGH STAKES!!!’
Trump made his first public comments on the day as he prepares to meet with Putin.
“HIGH STAKES!!!” he posted on Truth Social as his motorcade idled outside the White House shortly after sunrise in Washington.
He left the White House for Joint Base Andrews, the home base for Air Force One, at 7:32 a.m. ET.
NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Alaska to provide Trump with military advice
General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, is in Alaska to provide “military advice” to President Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, a senior NATO military official told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Grynkewich, who is the commander of U.S and NATO forces in Europe, is a supporter of Ukraine and views Russia as a clear threat to European security. He has previously spoken of the need to get military aid into Kyiv quickly, including after President Trump said in July that NATO would be coordinating deliveries of U.S weapons.
Grynkewich’s presence in Alaska is likely to be welcomed by European leaders who have spent recent days trying to convince President Trump to be robust with President Putin and not to do a deal over Kyiv’s head.
Trump says drone attacks hurt Putin’s negotiating position
Trump said Russian drone attacks on civilian areas of Ukraine are a misguided effort to improve Putin’s negotiating position.
“Maybe it’s a part of the world. Maybe it’s just his fabric, his genes, his genetics,” Trump told reporters travelling with him to the Alaska summit. “But he thinks that gives him strength in negotiating. I think it hurts him, but I’ll be talking to him about it later.”
Trump also talked on Air Force One about economic benefits for Russia, while warning of more severe sanctions if the talks aren’t fruitful.
“I noticed he’s bringing a lot of business people from Russia, and that’s good,” Trump said. “I like that because they want to do business, but they’re not doing business until we get to war settled.”
‘Possibility’ of US security guarantees for Ukraine, ‘but not in the form of NATO’
Trump says there’s “a possibility” of the United States offering Ukraine security guarantees alongside European powers, “but not in the form of NATO.”
Trump spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One on his way to the summit with Putin in Alaska.
He said it will be up to the Ukrainians to decide whether to concede land to Putin as part of a peace deal, but added: “I think they’ll make the proper decision.”
“I’m not here to negotiate for Ukraine,” Trump said. “I’m here to get them at a table.”
