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"It's like a game of chess," Trump said before his August 15 meeting with Putin, in an interview with Brian Kilmeade, a Fox News radio journalist.
"This meeting prepares the second meeting, which will be very important because that's where the agreement will be made. And I don't want to use the word 'parting things', but in a sense it's not a negative term: there will be a negotiation about borders, about lands, etc."
24 hours before his trip to Alaska, the US president explained that the main objective of the meeting with Putin is to pave the way for a trilateral summit with Zelensky, where "we may bring some of the European leaders, or we may not," as he added while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office. He imagines that in this trilateral meeting the peace agreement will be negotiated: "I will let them negotiate, I will not negotiate the agreement."
Meanwhile, Trump is confident that he can tell in 2-5 minutes whether a face-to-face meeting with Putin will go well or badly. He estimates there is a “25%” chance that it will go badly, but remains quite optimistic: “Because of some of the relationship he has with me, I believe he is now convinced to make a deal. He will make a deal,” he told Kilmeade, before adding, however, “We will find out, I will know very soon.” Trump also suggested that the second meeting, the one with Zelensky, could even take place in Alaska over the weekend: “I don’t know if we’re going to get an immediate ceasefire, but I think it’s going to happen. Listen, I’m more interested in an immediate peace agreement, getting it done as quickly as possible. And depending on what happens in my meeting, I’ll call President Zelensky… and have him come to where we’re going to meet. I don’t know where the second meeting will take place, but we have three possible places in mind. And the easiest thing would be to stay in Alaska.” “Wow,” the reporter replied, asking the president if he had told the Ukrainian leader to be ready to go. But Trump backed off: “I don’t want to talk about the second meeting with him, I don’t want to even suggest that there might be one.”
Trump believes that secondary sanctions against buyers of Russian oil (already imposed on India and threatened for China) have influenced Putin's decision to meet with him. "Certainly, when you lose your second-largest customer and you know you're likely to lose your first one too... I think that carries weight. I think he respects our country now, he didn't with Biden."
Trump also thinks economic incentives could persuade Russia, although he neither confirmed nor denied the Telegraph report that he would offer Putin the opportunity to exploit critical minerals in Alaska or Ukraine in exchange for a ceasefire (“Rare minerals are a relatively unimportant issue, we’re trying to save lives”).
Above all, Trump believes he has a special relationship with Putin. The US president criticizes the media for saying “oh, Trump works for Putin” and repeats that “Putin knows I’m the toughest guy he’s ever faced” (because he blocked the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and gave Kiev Javelin missiles). But recently, even Donald himself has been asked whether his relationship with Vladimir is what he thought, because after a few seemingly friendly and constructive phone calls, Putin has continued to hit Ukraine. “I ended six wars in six months and I’m proud of that. I thought this would be the easiest, but it’s the hardest,” he said yesterday. Trump has begun to consider the possibility that Putin wants to continue without stopping, but his confidence in his negotiating skills remains stronger. “I think if I weren’t president, he would take all of Ukraine, but I’m president and he’s not going to cheat me.”
Trump sees himself as a “peace president” (and always seeks the Nobel), but so far peace has eluded him in the biggest conflicts, in Ukraine and Gaza. If he emerges from the meeting with Putin without a result, it will be difficult to call him a winner. There is a possibility that the Russians will “distract” him, for example with a renewal of the nuclear weapons treaty that expires in February. He often goes to these meetings without much preparation, convinced of his ability to use force of personality as a winning weapon./ Corriere della sera
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