Gift That Trump Gave To Putin Accidentally Revealed
An eight-page document containing non-public details — including President Donald Trump’s gift for Russian President Vladimir Putin and their planned lunch menu — was reportedly left in a hotel printer in Anchorage just hours before the high-profile Ukraine peace summit.
While the mishap disclosed little in the way of sensitive security information, since most of the summit’s scheduled agenda at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson was already public, the incident went viral after being reported by NPR.
According to the formerly taxpayer-supported outlet, three guests at the four-star Hotel Captain Cook discovered the papers in a public printer.
Two of the pages detailed the menu for a lunch that was ultimately canceled, featuring filet mignon with brandy peppercorn sauce and a salad with champagne vinaigrette. Another page outlined a seating chart placing the two presidents at the center of a boardroom-style table, the New York Post reported.
Additional pages listed the names and photos of participants expected at an expanded meeting between U.S. and Russian officials, along with a note instructing aides that the Russian leader’s name should be pronounced “POO-tihn.”
The document also disclosed that Trump planned to present Putin with a bald eagle desk statue and included three phone numbers belonging to advance staffers who organized the events.
While the White House had already released most of the scheduled events contained in the printout, many were either shortened or canceled altogether after Trump abandoned his plan to push for an immediate cease-fire, opting instead to return to Washington with optimism about negotiating a comprehensive peace deal, The Post said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to visit the White House on Monday to discuss Putin’s proposal that Ukraine surrender the remainder of Donetsk province in exchange for the deployment of a strong international peacekeeping force, including British and French troops, to deter further Russian aggression.
Trump sounded a positive note in an early-morning social media post following his high-stakes summit on Friday in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump and his administration have been working since before he took office in January to end the more than three-year-old war between Russia and Ukraine, but have not been able to produce any results.
However, that may soon change if Trump’s post is any indication.
“A great and very successful day in Alaska! The meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia went very well, as did a late night phone call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, and various European Leaders, including the highly respected Secretary General of NATO,” Trump wrote.
“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,” he noted.
“President Zelenskyy will be coming to D.C., the Oval Office, on Monday afternoon. If all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin. Potentially, millions of people’s lives will be saved,” Trump concluded, adding his trademark sign-off: “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
At a joint press conference earlier Friday at Elmendorf-Richardson Air Force Base, Putin echoed Trump’s assertion that the war in Ukraine would never have started had Trump won the 2020 election and been in office when the conflict erupted, rather than former President Joe Biden.
“I can confirm that,” Putin said.
Trump repeatedly made the claim throughout his campaign and has continued to do so since returning to the White House. He has faced criticism not only for that assertion but also for suggesting that Ukraine provoked the war’s outbreak and that the Biden administration failed to take steps that might have prevented it.
