President Donald J. Trump, in his second term and apparently still allergic to the conventional wisdom of the D.C. foreign policy swamp, is on track to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time since returning to the White House.
And if you’re someone who remembers the pearl-clutching and dramatic fainting spells from the media during Trump’s first term anytime he so much as said “Russia,” you can already hear the CNN panels warming up their collective outrage.
According to reports, the idea of a bilateral meeting came straight from the American side — yes, that means Trump’s team is driving this. Yuri Ushakov, an aide to President Putin, confirmed that the Americans proposed a high-level sit-down in the “coming days.”
🚨 HOLY CRAP! Russian official just revealed that they received an offer from President Trump’s team on the Ukraine war and they deem it “ACCEPTABLE.”
Is Trump really gonna do it?
Potential meeting with Trump and Putin next week.pic.twitter.com/PAtlpBev4E
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 7, 2025
Now, don’t get too excited — no location has been confirmed yet, and there’s some typical diplomatic hemming and hawing over whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be included. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that when Trump says he’s going to do something, Washington might start sweating — but he usually does it anyway.
Ushakov also threw a little shade at the notion of a trilateral meeting — you know, the D.C. default of stuffing everyone into a photo-op room so they can agree to do nothing and issue a statement no one reads. Instead, Russia seems more focused on a one-on-one with Trump. Smart move — they know he gets things done without the State Department red tape and endless back-patting that defines so much of modern diplomacy.
And while the media will undoubtedly find a way to turn “Trump meets Putin to end a war” into a scandal (probably something about hotel curtains or too much eye contact), the bigger story here is that Trump is once again taking the initiative where others have failed miserably. Remember, this war has dragged on for years under the watch of “experts” and professional NATO speechwriters.
Trump confirms that Putin wants to meet, and clarifies that Zelensky does not necessarily need to be in attendance.
Trump says “I’ll do whatever I can to stop the killing”.
A peace deal seems to be close.
An end to this war is a huge win for humanity.
— Clandestine (@WarClandestine) August 7, 2025
The Biden years were filled with strong words, billions in aid, and… absolutely no progress. Trump, on the other hand, sends his envoy, Steve Witkoff — a businessman, not a career bureaucrat — to meet with Putin, and suddenly there’s talk of “great progress” and “productive meetings.”
Even Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary (and someone who can actually finish a sentence without fumbling like her predecessor), said that both sides are expressing interest in meetings with Trump. Zelenskyy, for his part, should probably be clearing his calendar — not just because Trump might demand it, but because if peace is truly on the table, Trump is the one person capable of pulling it off without dragging the U.S. into another multi-trillion-dollar, multi-decade mess.
Trump’s Truth Social post said it all: “Great progress was made.” You can practically hear the groans from legacy newsrooms from Manhattan to San Francisco. Progress? With Putin? That’s not how this narrative was supposed to go! But here we are — the man they insisted would start World War III is out here trying to end one. No wonder the left doesn’t know what to do with themselves.
So yes, while the D.C. establishment clutches its pearls and pundits furiously type out their pre-baked op-eds about how this meeting is “dangerous,” “unprecedented,” or “cozying up to dictators,” the rest of us see something else — actual leadership. Trump, love him or hate him, doesn’t posture. He negotiates. He confronts. And most importantly, he wins.
If this meeting happens — and by the looks of it, it will — don’t be surprised if the media suddenly develops selective amnesia about the actual suffering caused by this war. Because for them, the real nightmare isn’t the war dragging on. It’s Trump being the one to stop it.
