3:37President Donald Trump meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, August 15, 2025.Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
The eagerly awaited one-on-one summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin represents Trump’s latest attempt to achieve a peace agreement regarding Ukraine, which is a key focus of his second term.
This meeting follows a series of deals and agreements that the White House claims Trump has facilitated globally, which should lead to something the president has long sought — a Nobel Peace Prize.
"President Trump has successfully negotiated approximately one peace deal or ceasefire each month during his six months in office," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated during a press briefing last month. "It’s well overdue for President Trump to receive the Nobel Peace Prize."
President Donald Trump speaks after signing a presidential proclamation honoring the 90th anniversary of the Social Security Act in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, August 14, 2025.Will Oliver/EPA/Shutterstock
Trump himself has expressed his frustration over not receiving a Nobel Peace Prize; while responding to questions in the Oval Office in February alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, shortly after the U.S. facilitated a brief ceasefire agreement concerning Gaza, the president remarked, "They will never award me a Nobel Peace Prize. I deserve it."
The president has also asserted that he is deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize for U.S.-mediated agreements in various conflicts, including the peace agreement achieved in June between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, as well as the ceasefire established in May between India and Pakistan.
"No, I won't be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize regardless of what I do, including regarding Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, irrespective of those outcomes, but the public knows, and that is what matters to me!" Trump stated on social media in June.
Analysts suggest that Trump’s aspiration for the Nobel Peace Prize significantly influences the summit with Putin, as the president aims to fulfill a campaign promise to resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. He claimed he would accomplish this in the first 24 hours of his second term, although months later, amidst the ongoing war, he clarified that he had meant the 24-hour commitment "figuratively."
As the meeting with Putin in Alaska approaches on Friday, some foreign policy analysts have expressed worries about how Trump and his supporters’ preoccupation with the prize could affect diplomatic relations.
Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, argued in a column for the Washington Post that "Trump's unhealthy fixation on securing the Nobel Peace Prize has led him to make a series of impulsive decisions in pursuit of ending the conflict in Ukraine."
"The most recent instance is the arrangement of a hasty summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska — a prime example of how not to conduct diplomacy," he wrote.
President Donald Trump in Washington, Aug. 14, 2025 and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Aug. 12, 2025.EPA/Shutterstock/AFP via Getty Images
Ian Bremmer — the founder and president of Eurasia Group, a political risk research and consulting organization — stated in a post on X prior to the discussions that he fully anticipates Putin to "manipulate Trump's desires for recognition (such as the Nobel Peace Prize) to achieve his own goals."
Numerous world leaders and officials have voiced their endorsement for Trump receiving a Nobel Peace Prize in recent months.
Among them, the Pakistani government announced in June that it has formally recommended Trump for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize "in acknowledgment of his decisive diplomatic intervention and essential leadership during the recent India-Pakistan crisis."
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
