What Would Be a Decent Outcome of the Trump–Putin Meeting?
If Trump can extract a ceasefire to this bloody stalemate, he will have accomplished more than every international institution and European government.
(Left) U.S. President Donald Trump at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., on July 29, 2025. (Right) Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on May 8, 2025. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images; Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
Admittedly, spending time with Vladimir Putin is not exactly a day at the seashore. But President Donald Trump is perhaps the best prepared of any modern president to deal with Putin and Xi Jinping types.
Grant Newsham
Author
Grant Newsham is a retired U.S. Marine officer and a former U.S. diplomat and business executive with many years in the Asia/Pacific region. He is a senior fellow with the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies (Tokyo) and Center for Security Policy and the Yorktown Institute in Washington, D.C. He is the author of the best selling book “When China Attacks: A Warning to America.”