White House explains why Zelensky will not be at Putin summit

Over the last few days, all kinds of reports have been flying around regarding the big summit in Alaska with Putin and Trump.

Trump is taking shots from the media for not having Zelensky there.

Things are a little clearer now, so I wanted to provide that information as it all finally makes sense.

Putin headed to USA

Putin has not set foot on US soil for about a decade, so this is a huge deal.

While there are some questions as to who initiated the contact, that is all political jockeying, and it is irrelevant for our purposes.

While Putin and Trump were touted as best buds by the media and Democrats, it was actually Barack Obama who met with Putin during a UN General Assembly in New York in 2015.

Trump offered an olive branch to Putin for coming here, stating that it was "very respectful that the president of Russia is coming to our country as opposed to us going to his country or even a third-party place."

Zelensky pitches a fit

Ukrainian President Zelensky is going ballistic over the fact that he will not be included in this summit, and at first, to be honest, I did not blame him.

He stated, "We cannot accept it, as an independent country.”

Again, I agree with Zelensky on this, as it is his country and no deal should be made without his approval. But again, if Trump decides to walk away because Zelensky does not want to make the deal on the table, that is another discussion altogether.

It’s not a shot against Trump, nor is it a shot against Zelensky, but his point is valid. As I noted in a report yesterday, there is no way the US would accept a peace deal negotiated for the United States if we were at war without direct input, so I get him being upset about this.

Just feeling it out

Trump and the White House clarified this a bit more on Tuesday, and it now makes a bit more sense to me.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated, "The president is agreeing to this meeting, at the request of President Putin. And the goal of this meeting for the president is to walk away with a better understanding of how we can end this war.

"I think the president of the United States getting in the room with the president of Russia ,sitting face-to-face rather than speaking over the telephone will give this president the best indication of how to end this war and where this is headed.”

Point being, there will be no peace deal during this meeting, as it is just Trump trying to get a feel for Putin in terms of him being serious about a ceasefire or to see if he is just playing games. To that point, I would tell Zelensky to cool his heels for a second, but I would also note that the communication on this issue has been very poor. This is all stuff that should have been discussed behind the scenes with Zelensky, but both sides seem intent on talking through the media, which is simply not how this should be done. It makes both sides look a bit amateurish, in my opinion.