Following the great Alaska Summit between American President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the results of which will not be fully known for some time yet, Alaska’s own senior Senator, Princess Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), appeared on CNN’s “The Lead” opposite Jake Tapper, to describe what happened in a meeting she had with President Trump. The brief meeting took place after Air Force One landed, and also attending were Alaska’s junior Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Congressman Nick Begich III (R-AK).

Senator Murkowski first jokingly described the Alaska delegation’s request to President Trump to promise not to return any part of Alaska to Russia as part of any peace deal – which, candidly, isn’t that great of a joke, and in any case, President Trump apparently stated bluntly that this won’t happen.

Sen. Murkowski on her meeting with Trump before his summit with Putin
Watch the full video here: pic.twitter.com/GhwUrjEQVj

— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) August 16, 2025

Senator Murkowski said of the meeting: 

It was important to just be able to reinforce again the priority, no concessions about Alaska, I joked to the president yesterday, we were certainly hoping that he was not going to be considering returning any portion of Alaska back to Russia. He confirmed that we’re good there.

Well, that’s comforting.

But here’s the statement that jumps out at one:

Jake Tapper: 

You joke about not giving back Alaska, which the U.S. bought from Russia in 1867 for a little over $7 million, but you do sit on the Senate Committee for Energy and Natural Resources, and Alaska’s a home not only to fuel, not only to petroleum, but to a variety of rare-earth natural resources. And yesterday, President Trump was asked if he was considering offering any of that for commercial exploration by Russia, as a bargaining chip. He didn’t directly answer. He said rare earth is unimportant compared to saving lives. But that’s not really addressing the question. Would you support this as a bargaining chip?

Were Jake Tapper to ask me that question, my reply would probably be along the lines of “Are you drunk?” But Senator Murkowski took the question seriously:

It was raised in our brief meeting, with the president, about critical minerals, and the president quickly disposed of it and said, “That’s not going to happen.”

Of course, it’s not going to happen, and as President Trump may well have said had Jake Tapper put it to him, “That’s a stupid question.” The president has made domestic development of rare-earth materials and other strategic resources a priority, and he’s not going to bargain away some of it for a peace deal in a war in which the United States isn’t involved.