President Trump on Wednesday blasted news outlets for “unfair” coverage of his upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, arguing that he expects criticism from the media whether a “good” deal comes out of the summit or not.
Trump pointed to networks promoting quotes from former officials-turned-critics, including ex-national security adviser John Bolton, who has panned the summit between the two leaders in Alaska as a “great victory for Putin.”
“Very unfair media is at work on my meeting with Putin. Constantly quoting fired losers and really dumb people like John Bolton, who just said that, even though the meeting is on American soil, ‘Putin has already won,'” the president wrote in a post on Truth Social. “What’s that all about? We are winning on EVERYTHING.”
“The Fake News is working overtime (No tax on overtime!). If I got Moscow and Leningrad free, as part of the deal with Russia, the Fake News would say that I made a bad deal! But now they’ve been caught,” he continued. “Look at all of the real news that’s coming out about their CORRUPTION. They are sick and dishonest people, who probably hate our Country.”
Trump added, “But it doesn’t matter because we are winning on everything!!!”
The president has ramped up his criticism of Putin in recent months as the Russian military has continued its attacks on Ukraine despite the threat of increased sanctions on Moscow and its trading partners. Trump has also jabbed at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, including on Monday after the leader pushed back on talks around a territory swap, sparking worries from European officials who fear that the commander-in-chief could cut a bad deal for Kyiv.
“I was a little bothered by the fact that Zelensky was saying, ‘I have to get constitutional approval,’ he has approval to do a war and kill everybody, but he needs approval for land swapping,” Trump said to journalists on Monday.
The president has painted the upcoming meeting with the Russian leader as an opportunity to “feel out” Putin. Zelensky said this week that as part of a potential ceasefire, Ukraine might be asked to withdraw its military from Donbas, a hint he has gotten from Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who met with Putin last week.
“Witkoff said that there should be territorial concessions from both sides — that’s how it sounded. And that, most likely, Putin wants us to withdraw from Donbas. In other words, it didn’t sound like it was America wanting us to withdraw,” the Ukrainian leader said on Tuesday during a meeting with reporters. “After we held two more NSA meetings, it became clear what Putin wants. This is not a proposal from Trump or Witkoff.”
“During the call, I said that I am not ready to discuss Ukraine’s territories, as this is solely a matter of our Constitution,” Zelensky added.
He has also pressed the Trump administration to include Ukraine at the negotiating table, including the Alaska summit. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt signaled during a press briefing Tuesday that the president intends to meet with Putin one-on-one.
