'Not a single policymaking person who knows Russia,Ukraine' as Trump heads for talks with Putin

When Donald Trump steps into a room with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday (August 15), the setting will be a far cry from his first headline-grabbing encounter with the Russian leader in Helsinki six years ago. That summit went so poorly that Fiona Hill, his then top Russia adviser, later admitted she had considered faking a seizure to shut it down.

This time, there are unlikely to be any Russia specialists within arm’s reach of the president. In his second term, Trump has purged swathes of the federal workforce, elevated loyalists over seasoned experts and sidelined the traditional machinery of foreign policy.

Negotiations with Moscow have been handled not by diplomats steeped in years of Russia policy, but by real estate developer Steve Witkoff, who has no background in foreign affairs. Former ambassador Eric Rubin says Trump “does not have a single policymaking person who knows Russia and Ukraine advising him”, Financial Times reported.

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Ordinarily, before a meeting of this magnitude, the US national security council (NSC) would be corralling input from across government to prepare the president for anything Putin might throw at him. Known for his command of detail and skill in exploiting gaps in an opponent’s knowledge, Putin has been in power for a quarter of a century.

That process has been hollowed out. Dozens of foreign policy and national security officials were forced out of the NSC in May. More than 1,300 state department employees were let go last month, including many analysts covering Russia and Ukraine. The diplomatic corps has also been hit hard; the American Foreign Service Association estimates around a quarter of foreign service officers have quit since January. Top posts dealing with Russia and Ukraine remain unfilled.

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The administration insists the cuts will make the government “leaner” and more responsive. Deputy White House press secretary Anna Kelly said Trump still gets input from leaders at the state department, NSC and intelligence agencies before making decisions. But in practice, the most senior roles are concentrated in the hands of a few figures, including secretary of state Marco Rubio, who is also serving as acting national security adviser.

Trump has said the Alaska meeting will be “a feel-out” and that he will know “within two minutes” whether progress is possible. “I may say ‘lots of luck, keep fighting’, or I may say ‘we can make a deal’,” he told reporters this week.

For many former officials, that approach rings alarm bells. Daniel Fried, a former ambassador to Poland, warned: “You can’t have him and Witkoff winging it because they just don’t know enough. You need somebody in the room who can just look at the president, roll his eyes and shake his head.”

In Helsinki in 2018, Trump publicly questioned his own intelligence agencies’ findings on election interference, accepting Putin’s denials instead. Back then, he had what were described as the “adults in the room” – experienced hands who tried to temper his impulses. John Bolton, his national security adviser at the time, recalled trying to brief Trump on nuclear weapons during the flight to Helsinki, while the president watched a football match.

This time, those guardrails are gone. Fried put it bluntly: “This is not an administration that is going to have an experts-led process.”