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President Donald Trump was tight-lipped after his high-stakes summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday but offered some key insight into the meeting to Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an exclusive interview.
Here are the key takeaways from Trump’s highly anticipated meeting with the Russian leader as shared with Hannity.
1. ‘No deal until there’s a deal’Trump told Hannity that “as far as I’m concerned, there’s no deal until there’s a deal.” He noted, however, that “we did make a lot of progress.”
2. Putin ‘wants to see it done’The president noted to Hannity that he believes Putin is not only open to peace but that he “wants to see it done.”
TRUMP SAYS HE ‘WON’T BE HAPPY’ IF PUTIN DOES NOT AGREE TO A CEASEFIRE IN UKRAINE DURING ALASKA SUMMIT
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the tarmac after they arrived at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 15, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
3. Not prepared to share what the sticking point wasPressed by Hannity to share what the “one big issue you don’t agree on” that kept the leaders from walking away with a ceasefire deal, Trump declined to share. He said, “No, I’d rather not. I guess somebody’s going to go public with it, they’ll figure it out, but no, I don’t want to do that, I want to see if we can get it done.”
4. Up to Zelenskyy and EuropeAfter taking such a major step as to physically meet with the Russian president, Trump said it is now “up to [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy to get it done and maybe the European nations, they have to get involved a little bit.”
5. Trump open to trilateral meetingThe president said he would be open to attending a trilateral meeting with the presidents of Ukraine and Russia, saying, “If they’d like, I’ll be at that meeting. They’re going to set up a meeting now between President Zelenskyy and President Putin and myself, I guess, not that I want to be there, but I want to get it done.”
He added, “I’ll be there.”
PUTIN PRAISES TRUMP’S ‘SINCERE’ PEACE EFFORTS, SIGNALS POSSIBLE US-RUSSIA NUCLEAR DEAL
President Donald Trump meets with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
6. Meeting a ‘10’Trump said he would rate the meeting a 10 out of 10, saying, “I think the meeting was a 10 in the sense that we got along great.”
7. Russia respects America nowAsked what he thought finally brought Putin to the negotiating table, Trump answered, “I don’t want to say anything brought him, he’s a very smart guy, nothing brought him to the table, so to speak.”
“I think he respects our country now, he didn’t respect it under Biden, I can tell you that, he had no respect for it.”
8. No war if Trump was in officeTrump also commented that he “was so happy” that Putin shared his belief during their joint press conference that the Russia-Ukraine war would never have happened had he been in office at the time.
ZELENSKYY NOT INVITED TO UPCOMING TRUMP, PUTIN TALKS — WHITE HOUSE SAYS THIS WAS THE REASON
Putin and Trump meet on the tarmac at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
9. Advice to ZelenskyyWithout hesitating, Trump said his advice to Zelenskyy after Friday’s meeting with Putin would be “make a deal.”
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10. 2020 election riggedTrump shared that Putin told him he believed the 2020 election was rigged because of the widespread mail-in voting, saying, “You can’t have a great democracy with mail-in voting.”
Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
