ALASKA SUMMIT MERELY ‘A LISTENING EXERCISE’: President Donald Trump has spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin four times in recent months, and each time has hung up the phone frustrated that he hears platitudes from Putin only to see no sign Russia is ready to make peace.
Faced with the prospect that Trump might actually follow through with crippling secondary sanctions, Putin suggested a face-to-face meeting, and Trump agreed, only to discover that despite what Putin may or may not have told special envoy Steve Witkoff during their Moscow meeting, Putin’s demands had only hardened.
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said yesterday the goal of the meeting is not to achieve a ceasefire agreement, but rather for Trump “to walk away with a better understanding of how we can end this war.”
“I think this is a listening exercise for the president. Look, only one party that’s involved in this war is going to be present,” Leavitt said. “The president has always said he wants a peace deal, he wants to see this war come to an end. But this bilateral meeting is a bilateral meeting between one party in this two-party war, right? You need both countries to agree to a deal.”
“He hopes in the future there can be a trilateral meeting with these three leaders to finally bring this conflict to an end,” Leavitt said. But for now, “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.”
RUBIO: ‘IT’S A FEEL-OUT MEETING TO BE HONEST’: In a radio interview, Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined in the effort to lower expectations for the Trump-Putin summit. “I think it’s a feel-out meeting to be honest,” Rubio told Sid Rosenberg on his “Sid and Friends in the Morning” show.
“Here’s the way I would describe it,” Rubio said, noting “nothing has come” from the phone conversations between the two leaders. “And so the president feels like, look, I’ve got to look at this guy across the table. I need to see him face-to-face. I need to hear him one-on-one. I need to make an assessment by looking at him.”
“A meeting is what you do to kind of figure out and make your decision. I want to have all the facts. I want to look this guy in the eye. And that’s what the President wants to do,” Rubio said, while pushing back in the criticism that meeting with Putin on U.S. soil, still claimed by Russia, was a public relations gift. “People have to understand, for President Trump, a meeting is not a concession,” Rubio said.
“He’s an amazing negotiator,” Rubio added. “I’m not just saying this because – I mean, he really, truly is. He has a tremendous instinct for deciphering human nature, so understanding how to navigate these things …I’ve seen it be very successful in these trade deals when he comes in and closes them, and they’re always in person. It’s hard to do that on the phone.”
PUTIN’S DESPERATE ALL-OUT PUSH: Ahead of the meeting, Putin has ordered his beleaguered ground troops to do everything possible to gain some more ground in the east, where the war has been stalemated for months. And it appears Russian forces are advancing, but only after suffering staggering casualties.
“Last month, the Russians lost —I think in July they lost 60,000 Russians – not lost like missing in action – like dead,’ Rubio said. “Sixty thousand — 60,000 in one month … Imagine 60,000 in a month.”
In recent days, Russia’s troops reportedly broke through Ukraine’s lines near the city of Pokrovsk and advanced several miles in an apparent effort to outflank Ukraine’s positions. Ukraine General Staff noted “165 combat clashes” in the east, but claimed its soldiers “repelled the offensive action” of many of the Russian forces, and were “inflicting tangible losses in live force and equipment to the occupation forces.”
“Russian forces continued to infiltrate Ukrainian defenses east and northeast of Dobropillya (northwest of Pokrovsk) using limited sabotage and reconnaissance groups on August 12,” the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest battlefield assessment. Russian forces have yet to be able to deploy reinforcements to hold and exploit this tactical penetration and will likely face obstacles in trying to do so.
“It’s very interesting that the Russians chose this moment to do this push, to achieve this informational effect, and show the maps what’s happening because Putin wants to go into the summit on Friday and have the international headlines be that this meeting is happening on the backstage of Russian battlefield breakthroughs,” George Barros, an expert with ISW, told the Washington Examiner’s Mike Brest.
While the Russian advances are small, Barros said the next few days and weeks will be consequential. While Russia has made only “small-scale penetrations” for now, it “certainly will seek to try to mature these tactical successes into a larger breakthrough and a larger penetration and seize more territory,” he said.
RUSSIA MAKES BATTLEFIELD ADVANCES AS PUTIN LOOKS TO STRENGTHEN HAND AHEAD OF TRUMP MEETING
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HAPPENING TODAY: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Berlin this morning to attend a virtual summit in which President Donald Trump is expected to participate. European leaders hope to shape Trump’s views ahead of Friday’s summit.
Zelensky is expected to make a statement after the virtual meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
ALSO TODAY: Washington, D.C., woke up this morning to find National Guard troops patrolling the capital city. Troops were deployed on the streets supporting local law enforcement, and some Humvees and troops were spotted on the National Mall.
The city’s police chief, Pamela Smith, and Mayor Muriel Bowser say they are cooperating with the federal forces, which include FBI, ICE, and Park Police, as well as Guard troops. “How we got here or what we think about the circumstances — right now we have more police, and we want to make sure we use them,” Bowser said.
The White House says DEA administrator Terry Cole is now in charge of Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department and is “working with the [police] chief to ensure that law enforcement officers are allowed to do their jobs in this city,” according to press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“If you read the executive order, it will tell you. The leadership structure is as follows,” Leavitt said. “The chain of command is as such: the president of the United States, the attorney general of the United States, our DEA administrator, Terry Cole.”
NATIONAL GUARD MOBILIZES IN DC FOR TRUMP’S POLICE TAKEOVER AND CRIME CRACKDOWN
BENNY JOHNSON ‘ANY REPORTER WHO SAYS D.C. IS A SAFE PLACE IS LYING’: The first question in yesterday’s White House briefing went to conservative podcast host Benny Johnson, who has been assigned the “new media” seat in the briefing room. Johnson prefaced his question with a personal testimonial about the state of crime in Washington, disputing the idea that crime is under control in the city.
“As a D.C. resident of 15 years, I lived on Capitol Hill, I have witnessed so many muggings and so much theft, I lost track. I was carjacked. I have murders on my Ring camera and mass shootings. I witnessed a woman on my block get held up at gunpoint for $20. And my house was set ablaze in an arson with my infant child inside,” Johnson said. “And so to any reporter that says and lies that D.C. is a safe place to live and work, let me just say this: thank you. Thank you for making this city safe, because no parent should have to go through what my family went through, having a fire department rip open their door to save their infant child.”
THIS DC NEIGHBORHOOD IS AS DANGEROUS AS JUÁREZ. OTHERS AREN’T MUCH BETTER
DOJ SETTLES LAWSUITS SEEKING TO END RACE-BASED ADMISSIONS: Agreeing that the policies of the Trump administration rendered their arguments against so-called race-conscious admissions at the military service academies moot, a group, Students for Fair Admissions, agreed to drop lawsuits challenging the policy.
The Justice Department formally announced the settlement of the litigation on Tuesday. “This Department is committed to eliminating DEI practices throughout the federal government,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi. “We are proud to partner with the Department of Defense to permanently end race-based admissions at West Point and the Air Force Academy — admission to these prestigious military institutions should be based exclusively on merit.”
While the Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that colleges and universities could not consider race in admissions, it said that decision did not apply to military service academies because they had “potentially distinct interests.”
An executive order, “Restoring America’s Fighting Force,” issued by Trump Feb. 2, specified, “No individual or group within our Armed Forces should be preferred or disadvantaged on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, color, or creed.”
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THE RUNDOWN:
Washington Examiner: Russia makes battlefield advances as Putin looks to strengthen hand ahead of Trump meeting
Washington Examiner: Russia breaks through main Ukrainian defensive line ahead of meeting with Trump
Washington Examiner: National Guard mobilizes in DC for Trump’s police takeover and crime crackdown
Washington Examiner: Patel reports 10 FBI arrests in DC after Trump takeover of Washington police
Washington Examiner: Trump’s order to bring National Guard to DC part of pattern that could continue
Washington Examiner: This DC neighborhood is as dangerous as Juárez. Others aren’t much better
Washington Examiner: ICE swamped with 100,000 applications in two weeks since announcing hiring blitz
Washington Examiner: Oklahoma emptying prisons of illegal immigrants in budding ICE partnership
Washington Examiner: Judge orders ICE to improve conditions at NYC facility after complaints of overcrowding
Washington Examiner: US planning corridor from Israel into Syria for humanitarian aid to Druze
Washington Examiner: US designates Pakistani separatist group Balochistan Liberation Army as terrorists following resource deal
Wall Street Journal: Ukraine’s Once Nimble Army Is Mired in Soviet Decision-Making
AP: You really can see Russia from Alaska, and other things to know ahead of Friday’s Trump-Putin summit
Washington Post: Pentagon Plan Would Create Military ‘Reaction Force’ for Civil Unrest
AP: Netanyahu hints that Gaza ceasefire talks now focus on the release of all hostages at once
AP: Republicans, Democrats Alike Exhort Trump: Keep Security Pact with Australia and UK Alive
Wall Street Journal: Switzerland Asks Whether Its Famed Neutrality Is Fit for the Modern World
AP: Wife of South Korea’s jailed ex-President Yoon arrested over corruption allegations
Breaking Defense: Plans for Singapore F-15 Training Detachment in Guam Cancelled
Air Force Times: Report Unlocks Mystery of Why Chinese Bombers Flew near Alaska in 2024
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Air Force Buys More Mobile Command Centers That Fit in a C-130
Aviation Week: Battle Managers, Operators Face Uncertainty Minus E-3, E-7
Breaking Defense: Amid Shakeup, Army Plans to Replace Gray Eagle and Shadow Drones
The War Zone: More MQ-58 Variants in the Works After Marines Move to Make Valkyrie a Full Program of Record
SpaceNews: Rocket Lab Completes Acquisition of US Satellite Sensor Maker Geost
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Air Force Lost $13M Drone in Mediterranean After Propeller Fell Off
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Pentagon Contest Develops AI Tools to Find and Patch Dangerous IT Flaws
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Sentinel’s Second Stage Test Results Show Digital Models Are Accurate: Officials
THE CALENDAR:
WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 13
1 p.m. — Washington Institute for Near East Policy virtual discussion: “Arms Sales and the Middle East: Another Arena for Great Power Competition,” with Laura Cressey, former director of the State Department’s Office of Regional Security and Arms Transfers; Samuel Bendett, adviser in the Center for Naval Analyses’s Russia Studies Program; Ionela Ciolan, research officer at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies; and Jake Rinaldi, associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation https://washingtoninstitute-org.zoom.us/webinar/register
THURSDAY | AUGUST 14
10 a.m. — Center for European Policy Analysis Zoom briefing for members of the media: “Press Briefing: Trump-Putin Alaska Summit,” with CEPA experts Eitvydas Bajarunas, senior fellow, Democratic Resilience and former Lithuanian Ambassador to Russia; Sam Greene, director, Democratic Resilience; Jason Israel, Auterion senior fellow, former special assistant to the president and senior director for defense policy and strategy, National Security Council; and Olga Tokariuk, fellow, Democratic Resilience https://cepapressbrieftrumpputin.rsvpify.com
10 a.m. Center for a New American Security virtual discussion: “Policy Options on Afghanistan Four Years After the U.S. Withdrawal,” with U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan Richard Bennett; former Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary David Sedney; Metra Mehran, gender and policy adviser at the Atlantic Council; and Lisa Curtis, director of the CNAS Indo-Pacific Security Program https://www.cnas.org/events/virtual-event-policy-options-on-afghanistan
12 p.m. 1400 K St. NW — Arab Center, Washington, D.C. book discussion: Understanding Palestine and Israel, with author Phyllis Bennis, fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, and director of its IPS New Internationalism Project; and Khalil Jahshan, executive director of Arab Center Washington, D.C. https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/
FRIDAY | AUGUST 15
8 a.m. — Atlantic Council virtual discussion: “U.S.-Japan Global Partnership in Central Asia,” with Tomohiko Uyama, professor at Hokkaido University; Zhanibek Arynov, assistant professor at Nazarbayev University; Joseph Webster, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center; Markus Garlauskas, director of the Atlantic Council’s Indo-Pacific Security Initiative; and Kyoko Imai, associate director of the Atlantic Council Indo-Pacific Security Initiative and the Atlantic Council Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/us-japan-global-partnership-in-central-asia/
10 a.m. — Henry L. Stimson Center virtual discussion: “Taliban Rule and Regional Realignments Four Years On,” with Sibghatullah Ghaznawi, associate research scholar at Columbia University; Shalini Chawla, fellow at the Centre for Air Power Studies; Sarah Godek, research associate at the Stimson China Program; and Akriti Vasudeva Kalyankar, fellow at the Stimson South Asia Program https://www.stimson.org/event/taliban-rule-and-regional-realignments