
Trump-Putin Meeting in Budapest This Week Is Called Off – But the Sudden Announcement Raises Eyebrows

America Reports on FOX News reported on Tuesday that the meeting between President Trump and President Putin in Budapest was called off.
FOX News reporter John Roberts made the announcement earlier today – and added a peculiar twist.
John Roberts, “In the not too distant future between the President and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest is not going to happen, nor will the meeting that was supposed to be either tomorrow or Thursday between Secretary of State Rubio and Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov.
Apparently, the two of them, that’s Rubio and Lavrov, had a phone conversation today. It was said to be a productive call, therefore not necessitating the need for further in-person meetings.
Not quite sure what to read into that because it was supposed to be the in-person that really forged a path toward potentially the end of the war in Ukraine. We’ll have to find out where that is.
That certainly raised some eyebrows. Obviously, there is more to this development than is being reported.
Via Karli Bonne:
Trump-Putin meeting is off pic.twitter.com/hdN5dnSv4M
— Karli Bonne’ (@KarluskaP) October 21, 2025
On Monday, a high-level phone call was held between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The Russian side characterized the call as ‘constructive’, and from US officials the same cautious optimism was expressed.
Reuters reported:
“Putin and Trump agreed in a phone call last Thursday to meet soon in Budapest, Hungary for their second summit this year, and the two sides said Lavrov and Rubio would speak to prepare the meeting.
‘A constructive discussion took place regarding possible concrete steps to implement the understandings reached during the October 16 telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump’, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a brief statement.”
Sergey Lavrov spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio — the two discussed ‘possible concrete steps’ following Putin’s recent call with Trump
Moscow calls the exchange ‘constructive’ — a word not used lightly
A cautious thaw before future meetings? pic.twitter.com/BYF7JgrRVN
— RT (@RT_com) October 20, 2025
This news broke today after Ukrainian leader Zelensky’s visit to the White House last week.
As Zelensky was headed to Washington, DC for the Trump meeting, his world came crashing down, as news circulated of the Trump call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and the upcoming meeting in Hungary.
The part of the meeting that was open to the press proceeded reasonably well, but reports say that after the press left, it became a tense meeting, in which Trump told Zelensky that he doesn’t intend to provide long-range Tomahawk missiles.
Zelensky was led to hope for commitments around new weapons, but Trump was ‘in a totally different state of mind’.
The US President stated that his priority now is diplomacy, and sending Tomahawk missiles could undermine it.
And so Ukraine is without long-range missiles and the peace meeting is off – for now.
Meanwhile, the war continues.
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