President Donald Trump expressed hope Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin would attend December’s Group of 20 summit in Miami.
When asked by a reporter if Putin was going to attend the summit, Trump said that there were no plans for him to come but that he believes it would be for the best if he did.
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“No, but if [Putin] came, it would be probably very helpful,” he said.
“You know, I’ve said a long time ago, when they made the G8 the G7, they threw Russia out before my time … and I said, ‘That’s a stupid thing to do.’ And I was right,” Trump continued. “I go to these meetings of the G7, and about 90% of the meeting was talking about Russia and what’s going on with Russia. And I said, ‘Why’d you throw them out?’ You know, if they didn’t throw them out, they would have been much better off, in my opinion,” Trump continued, going on to say that Putin was “rightfully” offended by Russia being booted from the organization.
When asked whether Putin had been invited, Trump said he didn’t know but believed he should be.
“I’m of the opinion that you talk to everybody,” Trump said. “I’m not one of these guys, ‘Oh, let’s not talk to him. You know, there’s a war going on. Let’s not talk to him.’ I like talking to everybody. If you’re a smart person, if you have control over your emotions and all the other things you need to be in control of … I’m somebody that believes in talking.”
The president added that he doubted Putin would attend the summit even if invited.
In the same vein of being sympathetic to traditional U.S. adversaries, Trump suggested that there were no hard feelings against China if it assisted Iran during the war with the U.S. and Israel.
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“I guess we do the same thing, don’t we?” he said.
Trump reversed his predecessor’s policy of freezing Russia out of international diplomacy over its invasion of Ukraine, a new approach that peaked in August 2025 when Putin met with Trump in Alaska. Though the approach has opened up serious peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, mutually exclusive positions have left a permanent peace agreement elusive.
