President Donald Trump said he’s begun arrangements for a face-to-face meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss a pathway to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Trump affirmed that the U.S. would back European security guarantees but stopped short of committing U.S. troops to a collective effort to prevent Moscow from reinvading its neighbor.
Relying on the false information and conspiracy theories that he’s regularly used to explain away his 2020 election loss, Trump has pledged again to get rid of both mail voting, used by about one-third of all voters, and voting machines used in nearly all of the nation's election jurisdictions. Based on the Constitution, U.S. elections are managed by the states, and there is little to no way for Trump to change this.
Here's the latest:
It’s gratitude diplomacy: Showering Trump with thanks
World leaders understand that flattery is the way to winning over the unpredictable Trump, having taken their cue from Zelenskyy ’s disastrous White House scolding six months ago.
With peace talks on the table, Zelenskyy thanked Trump and others nine times in the first minute of their initial public meeting at the White House on Monday. Appearing later with top leaders from Europe, Zelenskyy expressed his thanks at least seven more times, twice for a map Trump had presented him.
He was not alone. Trump himself used the T-word about a dozen times in the later meeting. Starmer thanked the president four times. And NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte called Trump “amazing.”
▶ Read more about how world leaders approach Trump
Air Force’s top uniformed officer will depart
The Air Force’s top uniformed officer is set to retire early in the most recent shakeup of military leadership during Trump’s second term.
An Air Force announcement Monday said Gen. David Allvin will continue as the service’s chief of staff until the Senate confirms a replacement. It says Allvin expects to retire around Nov. 1, two years into his four-year term.
Allvin, an appointee of President Joe Biden, has served since November 2023.
Many Republicans doubt mail voting — but it also helped elect Trump
Trump’s push to do away with voting by mail will likely find support among Republican voters who doubt its reliability, but it could impact candidates in Trump’s GOP: About 2 in 10 Trump voters in the 2024 presidential election cast a mail-in ballot, according to AP VoteCast.
Republican voters were less confident in the accuracy of mailed ballots than independents and Democratic voters ahead of the 2024 election, according to AP-NORC polling from October.
Only about 1 in 10 Republican voters were “extremely” or “very” confident that ballots mailed using a drop box or via the U.S. Postal Service would be counted accurately. About one-quarter of independents and roughly 6 in 10 Democrats were confident in their accuracy.
JD Vance to Georgia this week to tout GOP tax law
The vice president is traveling to Georgia on Thursday to continue his nationwide tour promoting the new Republican tax law.
Vance will be in the Atlanta suburb of Peachtree City, where his office says he’ll “highlight President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill and the historic tax cuts it delivered for working class American families.”
Vance has already gone to Ohio and Pennsylvania to talk up the law, which preserved existing tax rates for individual earners while offering temporary tax breaks for tips and overtime.
Georgia will have one of the most hotly-contested Senate races in the 2026 midterms as first-term Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff runs for reelection in a state Trump won in 2024.
Trump offers ‘my assurance’ US troops won’t be sent to Ukraine
Trump has said the U.S. will help the European effort to provide Ukraine the security guarantees it seeks to prevent Russia from invading again after the war ends.
On Monday, he did not rule out sending U.S. troops to join any such effort. But when asked during a TV interview on Tuesday to offer assurances that American troops won’t be defending Ukraine’s border going forward and after his administration ends, Trump said, “Well, you have my assurance and I’m president.”
The ‘Trump slump?’ Tourism is down sharply in Las Vegas
Vegas resorts and convention centers are reporting 11% fewer visitors in June compared to last year, and 13% fewer international tourists. Hotel occupancy fell by about 15%, according to data from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Some officials are blaming Trump tariffs and immigration policies. Mayor Shelley Berkley said tourism from Canada — Nevada’s largest international market — has dried from a torrent “to a drip.”
Ted Pappageorge, head of the powerful Culinary Workers Union, called it the “Trump slump.” He said visits from Southern California, home to a large Latino population, were also drying up because people are afraid of the administration’s immigration crackdown. “If you if you tell the rest of the world they’re not welcome, then they won’t come,” he said.
▶ Read more about the Trump affect on tourism in the U.S.
‘Coalition of the Willing’ wants robust U.S. security for Ukraine
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a virtual meeting of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ on Tuesday that there was “a real sense of unity and shared goal of securing a just and lasting peace for Ukraine” at their White House meeting with Trump.
Starmer and Macron also discussed how more sanctions and other pressure could be placed on Putin until he shows he’s “ready to take serious action to end his illegal invasion,” according to the the Downing Street statement.
The U.K. Chief of Defense Staff, Adm. Tony Radakin, is travelling to Washington as teams from the coalition of more than 30 nations meet with U.S. counterparts to strengthen “plans to deliver robust security guarantees and prepare for the deployment of a reassurance force if the hostilities ended,“ the statement said.
Putin's arrest warrant complicates a Zelenskyy meeting
French President Emmanuel Macron said it could happen “in Europe” and he’s advocating for Geneva in Switzerland, although he said it could be another ’neutral” country. He noted in an interview with French television TF1-LCI broadcast Tuesday that Istanbul hosted the most recent bilateral discussions, in 2022.
Meanwhile, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said his country would be prepared to organize such a summit, Swiss public broadcaster SRF reported.
Asked about the complication posed by the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Putin, Cassis said “the aim of receiving Mr. Putin in Switzerland without him being arrested is 100% achievable … of course, if he comes to Switzerland for the purposes of peace, for such a multilateral conference, not if he comes for private matters.”
Cassis said arranging for Putin to avoid arrest would require “a certain procedure,” but it could be done “in a few days.”
A call for speeding up Ukraine’s membership in the European Union
European Council President Antonio Costa called for “Russia must immediately end the violence” in Ukraine after a virtual meeting of the 27 heads of state of the European Union’s member nations. “Our top priority must be to stop the killings — whether we call it a ceasefire or a truce is secondary,” Costa told reporters Tuesday.
Economic pressure via sanctions should be maintained on Russia to end the war, and Ukraine’s candidacy to join the EU should be accelerated, he said: “Ukraine’s future is not only about strong security guarantees and their finding a potential peace deal with Russia, but also about its European path. This is why we must move forward with the enlargement process.”
Views from Ukraine: No illusions for sudden peace
A Ukrainian political analyst says this Zelenskyy meeting with Trump ‘went satisfactorily.’
“The task of this meeting was to prevent Trump from pressuring Ukraine with Russian demands. We managed to achieve that 100%. We managed to explain that the issue of territories is not just about land—it’s about people. There can be no exchange,” Oleh Saakian said.
“For Ukraine, the meeting with Putin is important to show Trump whether Russia is really ready to end the war. It is important to demonstrate that Ukraine has done everything possible on its side,” Saakian said. “I don’t think anyone in Ukraine has the illusion that a meeting with Putin could suddenly bring peace. It’s not as if at a meeting with Zelenskyy, Putin will suddenly say: ‘Yes, I was mistaken, I confess, I withdraw the troops, I give back the territories.’”
Trump says leaders of Russia and Ukraine unlikely to become ‘best friends’
Trump says Putin and Zelenskyy are getting along “a little better than I thought,” noting the “tremendous bad blood” between them.
He said his perception of their relationship is why he’s arranging for them to meet one-on-one soon, instead of a three-way meeting with himself as sort of a mediator.
“I think they’re doing OK. I wouldn’t say they are ever going to be best friends, but they’re doing OK,” the president told Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends.”
“You know, they’re the ones that have to call the shots,” Trump said. “We’re 7,000 miles away.”
Trump says he didn’t speak with Putin with European leaders in the room
The president said he thought it would have been disrespectful to handle the phone call that way since Putin and the European leaders meeting with him at the White House haven’t had the “warmest relations.”
But despite that, he said during an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends” that he has managed to maintain a “very good relationship” with Putin.
Trump was holding talks at the White House on Monday with Zelenskyy and the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, the European Union and NATO on ending Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Trump says admitting Ukraine into NATO and the return of Crimea are ‘impossible’
The president, in a morning interview on “Fox & Friends,” said that he’s optimistic a deal can be made to bring an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But Trump underscored that Ukraine will have to set aside both its hope of a returned Crimea, which Russia seized by force in 2014, and its aspirations to join the NATO military alliance.
“Both of those things are impossible,” Trump said.
Putin, as part of any potential deal, is looking for the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as recognition of Crimea as Russian territory.
Judge dismisses part of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ lawsuit, changes venue
A federal judge in Miami dismissed part of a lawsuit over the legal rights of detainees at the “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center and moved the case to a different jurisdiction.
U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz's 47-page ruling late Monday says claims the detainees lack confidential access to their lawyers or to immigration hearings were rendered moot when the Trump administration recently designated the Krome North Processing Center near Miami as a site for their cases to be heard.
The judge heard arguments from both sides in a hearing earlier Monday in Miami. Civil rights attorneys were seeking a preliminary injunction to ensure detainees at the facility have access to their lawyers and can get a hearing.
The state and federal government had argued that even though the isolated airstrip where the facility is located is owned by Miami-Dade County, Florida’s southern district was the wrong venue since the detention center is located in neighboring Collier County, which is in the state’s middle district.
The defendants made an identical argument last week about jurisdiction for a second lawsuit in which environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe sued to stop further construction and operations at the Everglades detention center until it’s in compliance with federal environmental laws. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami ordered a 14-day halt on additional construction and said she plans to rule before the order expires this week.
▶ Read more about the lawsuit over the detention center
Zelenskyy says meeting with Putin should be held ‘without any conditions’
Zelenskyy says that if he starts to set conditions for the meeting, regarding a potential ceasefire or other matters, then Russia will want to set conditions, too, potentially jeopardizing those talks.
“That’s why I believe that we must meet without any conditions,” he told reporters.
Zelenskyy said Trump showed him a map of the Ukraine front lines in the Oval Office and they got into a little debate about territories it showed. But they didn’t argue, he said.
“We had a truly warm, good and substantial conversation,” Zelenskyy said.
NATO leader says ‘Article 5 kind of security guarantees’ will be discussed in coming days
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte says Trump agreed that the United States would contribute to Ukraine’s security following a peace deal, a development he called “a breakthrough.”
Membership in NATO is not on the table, but the U.S. and European leaders are discussing “Article 5 kind of security guarantees for Ukraine,” Rutte said in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham. Article 5 of the NATO treaty says an attack on one member nation is an attack on all members, the heart of the transatlantic defense compact.
Details around U.S. involvement in Ukraine “will be discussed over the coming days,” which will give Zelenskyy the clarity he needs to decide whether Ukrainians can remain safe following a peace deal.
“It is important to also know what the situation will be with the security guarantees to prevent Vladimir Putin from ever, ever trying again to invade parts of Ukraine,” Rutte said.
The possibility of U.S. troops in Ukraine was not discussed Monday, he said.
DC told of intent to arm National Guard troops
Washington has been informed about the intent for the National Guard to be armed, though it has not received details about when that could happen or where armed Guard members could be deployed in D.C., according to a person familiar who was not authorized to disclose the plans and spoke on condition of anonymity.
It would be a departure from what the Pentagon and Army have said about the troops being unarmed. The Army said in a statement last week that “weapons are available if needed but will remain in the armory.”
Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson also said last week that troops won’t be armed.
In response to questions about whether Guard members in Washington would be armed in the coming days, the District of Columbia National Guard said troops “may be armed consistent with their mission and training.”
Maj. Melissa Heintz, a spokesperson for the D.C. Guard, didn’t provide more details and said “their presence is focused on supporting civil authorities and ensuring the safety of the community they serve.”
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— By Anna Johnson and Mike Pesoli
