They met once in 2018 in a European country that was still neutral. Whoever was there describes easily what he felt: “could not remember anything that was worse than that terrible show”
Donald Trump is not very optimistic – the revelation was made by the president of Finland – for a meeting that some have even compared to a decisive moment for World War II, but it is not the first time to prepare to talk face to face with Vladimir Putin.
On the contrary, since the two have been previously found. The difference is that this time there is a war and Russia, eternal enemy of the United States, raised a barrier with the invasion of Ukraine.
Even though the US president is showing more or less friend of Putin, more or less understanding that Kremlin makes, has also made it clear that his patience has limits and that they may be about to arrive – the warning of “serious consequences” was the latest.
If it does not go well, surely Trump will not be able to use a trick that tried in 2018, when the two were face to face in Helsinquia, the capital of Finland, at the time a still neutral country, since it was far from imagining that it would join NATO.
Fiona Hill was at this time one of the main White House counselors for European and Russian affairs. Shortly after the meeting, with Trump outside the presidency, he would remember “one of those moments when he is mortifying and humiliating to a country,” as he herself remembered in statements to CNN in 2021.
The country is the United States, of course, who left that meeting with few reasons to smile, in a meeting that had both bad and strange, to the point that Trump even fined an attack to end the event.
“I just thought, ‘Let’s try to end this.’ I couldn’t remember anything worse than that terrible show,” Fiona Hill said to Don Lemon,.
It was the same counselor who revealed this episode of the almost seizure, which did not have the intended effect: ending the summit.
This time it is unlikely that Trump is accompanied by someone like Fiona Hill, as his new administration has opted for loyal people instead of experienced people. This is the case of Steve Witkoff, the real estate that became a foreign policy tsar. First only for the Middle East, then for all wars to solve as soon as possible, that the Nobel Peace does not expect and the US President already despairs.
This is why the National Security Council, so crucial at this meeting where Fiona Hill has been, now plays a more secondary role if it is existing. Usually it would be at the front line of the preparation of a meeting of this caliber, but it is not expected this time to happen, at least with the analysis that was common.
If there are doubts of the loss of importance of that body, the dismissal of more than 1,300 state department officials show it well. According to, many of them were part of the sector that analyzes Russia and Ukraine.
In addition, Trump departs for this meeting without the Senate confirmed him a deputy secretary of state for European affairs. There is little an ambassador appointed to Russia or Ukraine.
This time it will be for necessarily Helsinchia. But thinking that Trump will abandon his almost instinctive approach is also to be naive. He has already understood that he is not sure how he will enter the meeting. “I can say ‘very luck, keep fighting’, or I can say ‘we can make a deal’.”
We’ll see which of the versions will be, or if it takes a new health episode invented to try to end something embarrassing.
