Trump-Putin Alaska meeting draws Reagan-Gorbachev summit comparisons

Speculation over how the upcoming meeting with President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin has run rampant over the last week, with some expressing concern the Alaska-based powwow could be more games from the Kremlin, while others have begun to draw comparisons to the 1985 breakthrough meeting between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Immediately following Trump’s announcement of the meeting last week, South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has been ardently opposed to Russia’s war in Ukraine, took to social media to argue, “To those who criticize President Trump for being willing to meet with Putin to end the bloodbath in Ukraine – remember Reagan met with Gorbachev to try to end the Cold War.   

“I’m confident President Trump will walk away – like Reagan – if Putin insists on a bad deal,” he added. 

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT TRUMP’S MEETING WITH VLADIMIR PUTIN IN ALASKA

While some comparisons can be drawn between the upcoming summit and the historic 1985 meeting in Geneva – which then led to the pair sitting down together two more times before the Cold War was finally brought to an end – there are “glaring” differences, warned experts. 

“We could be approaching a breakthrough moment if Putin realizes that Trump is the only world leader who will ever help Russia get out of the Ukraine War and end its isolation,” Fred Fleitz, who served as a deputy assistant to Trump and chief of staff of the National Security Council during the president’s first term, told Fox News Digital.

“Trump offers Putin a narrow window to greatly improve the lives of the Russian people and make them prosperous,” he added. “Trump hopes to achieve a compromise that will give Putin a face-saving way to end the conflict.”

A portrait of President Ronald Reagan is seen in the background while President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House, April 22, 2025. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

But world leaders and security experts alike remain wary that there is any interest from Putin to end his war ambitions in Ukraine. 

“They need to meet. We need to see the results of the meeting, and then we need to see whether those are palatable for Ukraine, for Europe and for us,” Dan…