U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are both arriving at their summit in Alaska accompanied by sizable delegations.
Trump’s delegation, shared by the White House on Friday morning, includes some expected names—Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Also traveling with Trump is his special envoy Steve Witkoff, whose meeting with Putin in Moscow last week set the stage for the Alaska summit.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will travel to Alaska separately, the Defense Department confirmed, accompanied by Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the supreme allied commander for U.S. forces in Europe and the head of U.S. European command, is also reportedly attending the summit.
There are also a couple of inclusions that appear surprising, considering that the main goal of the meeting is purportedly to negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will also be traveling with Trump, opening up the possibility that trade concessions or sanctions relief could be put on the table as part of discussions with Putin. Trump noted that several Russian businessmen are accompanying Putin, as well, but the U.S. leader downplayed suggestions of any economic discussions at the outset. “I noticed he’s bringing a lot of business people from Russia,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Alaska. “And that’s good, I like that, because they want to do business, but they’re not doing business until we get the war settled.”
The absence of Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, is notable on paper but perhaps less surprising for Trumpworld observers. Kellogg has repeatedly been sidelined by Trump in his engagements with Putin, with most of those duties falling to Witkoff.
The first meeting of the summit, originally expected to be just the two leaders with their translators, is now set to be a three-on-three. Trump will be joined by Witkoff and Rubio, while Putin will reportedly have alongside him Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Yuri Ushakov, a former diplomat and key government advisor.
The U.S. trio will reportedly be joined after that meeting by Hegseth, Bessent, Lutnick, and Wiles for a broader working lunch.
Update, Aug. 15, 2025: This post was updated to reflect the latest news.
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