Journalist Mark Halperin predicted on “The Morning Meeting” Friday that the forthcoming Alaska summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is a ploy by the U.S. to arrest him as a war criminal.
Trump is scheduled to meet Friday with Putin, who has a 2023 warrant out for his arrest from the International Criminal Court for the alleged illegal trafficking of children from occupied parts of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.
Halperin’s co-hosts Sean Spicer and Dan Turretine said on the 2WAY show that they believed there was no chance the U.S. would arrest Putin, but Halperin disagreed.
????NEW: @MarkHalperin on Trump-Putin Summit:
“I think they’re going to arrest [Putin]. I think that’s the whole thing is to trick him to coming to the U.S. … He’s a war criminal.”@DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/BPiVzgJhzA
— Jason Cohen ???????? (@JasonJournoDC) August 15, 2025
“[W]hen it happens, we’ll post this moment,” Halperin said.
“I think they’re going to arrest him. I think that’s the whole thing is to trick him to coming to the U.S. and going to arrest him,” he added. “He’s a war criminal.”
The ICC alleged the war crimes were committed at least from Feb. 24, 2022, the day Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.
Trump has consistently pushed for peace between Ukraine and Russia and pledged to bring an end to the war during his 2024 presidential campaign.
Putin reportedly said he would terminate the war if Ukraine gave up broad swaths of its land in the eastern part of the country, European and Ukrainian officials told The Wall Street Journal Friday.
Trump told European leaders his intention for the summit was to obtain a cease-fire and not to talk about the possibility of dividing land between Russia and Ukraine, NBC News reported.
He had previously suggested that the meeting might include “some swapping of territories.”
The war is believed to have taken hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides.
“HIGH STAKES!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social Friday.
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