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Much of the lead-up to President Donald Trump’s summit on U.S. soil with his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, in hopes of ushering in a ceasefire or peaceful resolution to the years-long Russia-Ukraine war, could be described as boisterous. A huge part of the fanfare during the formal; greeting ceremony on the base tarmac, as you may have already seen, was a majestic flyover by a B-2 stealth bomber flanked by an entourage of U.S. military jets
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 17, 2025
As my colleague Katie Jerkovich wrote, the show of American might, from the get-go, certainly got Putin’s attention:
It was clear Putin wasn’t expecting it. He stopped walking with Trump, looked up, turned his head one way, then turned his head the other way, as he looked up at the sky filled with the US military. Trump also stopped at one point but appeared to be unbothered as he clapped his hands before he leaned over and said something to the foreign leader.
And it’s only right that the news cycle heading into the weekend and through Saturday has been dominated by the Russia-U.S. summit in Alaska, with the latest update on a possible breakthrough on getting Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky talking to each other appearing to bode well over the next 24-48 hours. Zelensky has accepted Pres. Trump’s invitation to meet in D.C, on Monday.
