Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are meeting in Alaska on Friday to start off their numerous discussions.
The meeting is the two leaders’ first face-to-face encounter since 2019 and their first standalone summit since a 2018 meeting in Helsinki.
It did not take long for Trump to make a significant power move.
As Putin arrived in Anchorage, Alaska, the US military showcased what appeared to be B-2 Stealth Bombers and F-22 Raptor jets overhead at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. This was a major power move by Donald Trump, who has previously told his supporters he wants the war between Russia and Ukraine to come to an end. Putin has been unwilling to do so.
Putin and Trump, meanwhile, shook hands after walking on the red carpet in front of their respective jets. The two leaders then got into a limousine for their meeting.
Videos of the B-2 Bombers and F-22 Raptor jets surfaced on social media.
B-2 Bombers and F-22 Raptor jets are not cheap. The B-2 Spirit carries a per-unit cost exceeding $2 billion. Last year, the Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) reported that the total F-22 program cost more than $67 billion, which means the cost per plane is around $350 million.
Everything is starting to come together slowly.
President Donald Trump called the meeting with President Vladimir Putin “extremely productive” but made it clear that “there’s no deal until there’s a deal.”
“Many points were agreed to, there are just a few that are left,” Trump added.
“We didn’t get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there.”
Trump added he would reach out to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and brief him about the inner workings of the meeting.