Two days after he twice said he was 'going to Russia' for his Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump used a Soviet-era name to describe Russia’s second-largest city as he attacked a former adviser on social media.
Writing on Truth Social to complain about “very unfair media” coverage of his upcoming summit with the Russian president, he said the press would even go so far to say he’d made a “bad deal” even if he reached an agreement for the United States to acquire “Moscow and Leningrad” without giving up anything in return.
The president appeared to be unaware of one small detail: The city he called “Leningrad” is actually called St. Petersburg and has been since city residents voted to ditch the Soviet-era name in June 1991.
It was the second embarrassing geographic mix-up in three days for Trump, who on Monday also appeared to forget that the site of his sit-down with Putin (a former deputy mayor of St. Petersburg) is happening on sovereign American territory in the state of Alaska.
During a press conference on Monday, he claimed he was “going to Russia” to meet Putin even though Alaska has been American territory since the United States purchased the vast area from Czar Alexander II of the Russian Empire for the modest sum of $7.2 million. It became the US’s 49th state in 1959.
As he addressed reporters regarding crime in Washington, DC and his plans to deploy the National Guard and put the city’s police under his control, Trump said: “You know, I’m going to see Putin. I’m going to Russia on Friday.” He repeated the gaffe later in the same briefing.
He is set to meet with the Russian president to discuss bringing an end to the war in Ukraine that Russia initiated when it invaded the sovereign nation in February 2022.
“The highly anticipated meeting between myself, as President of the United States of America, and President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, will take place next Friday, August 15, 2025, in the Great State of Alaska,” Trump posted last week on Truth Social.
Ahead of the meeting, the White House is acknowledging that his upcoming summit isn’t likely to result in a ceasefire.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about the apparent Alaska-Russia gaffe at a briefing with reporters on Tuesday and largely brushed it off.
"The president said on the podium yesterday, twice, that he was planning to go to Russia," a reporter asked her. "Was that a verbal slip-up or does he actually plan to go to Russia?"
"Perhaps there are plans in the future to travel to Russia and on Friday the president will be meeting with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska, as you know," Leavitt responded.
She also appeared to lower expectations when she was asked about Trump’s outlook on the sit-down, calling it “a listening exercise for the President” and acknowledging that Zelensky’s absence would make it difficult if not impossible for any real solution to the conflict to emerge from the bilateral talks.
“Look, only one party that's involved in this war is going to be present, and so this is for the President to go and to get ... a more firm and better understanding of of how we can hopefully bring this war to an end,” she said.
“The President inherited this conflict, and he is determined to end it. And it's a very complex and complicated situation.”
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