NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is scheduled to meet with President Trump at the White House on Wednesday, according to people familiar with the matter.
Why it matters: After Trump's "tough" meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky last week, Rutte made preparations to travel to Washington to meet with Trump and members of Congress.
- The meeting was scheduled before the White House on Tuesday pulled down a planned summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest.
Zoom out: After a long phone conversation with Putin last week, Trump announced that he would be meeting with Putin to try and broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
- On Sunday, Trump was still optimistic about ending the conflict, telling Fox News that Putin was "going to take something, he's won certain property."
- But a phone call Monday between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart didn't yield sufficient progress towards a second Trump-Putin summit.
Zoom in: Rutte accompanied Zelensky to a White House meeting in August along with other European leaders after a February Oval Office visit between Trump and Zelensky ended in acrimony.
