Alaska summit leak: Trump's secret lunch and bald eagle gift for Putin exposed (photos)
Photo: US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin (Getty Images)
A joint lunch between US and Russian officials during the Alaska summit was planned "in honor of his excellency Vladimir Putin." Trump intended to gift a bald eagle statuette to Putin, NPR reports.
Confidential documents related to the summit on August 15 became public after US officials accidentally left them at a business center in a hotel in Anchorage. Visitors found the papers and provided photocopies to journalists.
The lost set included eight documents detailing the summit's exact locations, meeting schedules, phone numbers of senior officials, and other sensitive organizational information.
Lunch "in honor of his Excellency"
The documents show that a joint lunch for US and Russian delegations, scheduled after the press conference, was officially described as "in honor of his excellency Vladimir Putin." Trump and Putin were set to sit opposite each other, surrounded by representatives from both countries.
From the US side, attendees were expected to include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff. Russian attendees included Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Presidential Adviser for Foreign Policy Yuri Ushakov.
The lunch itself was planned to be simple, with only three courses: green salad, filet mignon, and Olympic-style halibut.
Photo: A joint lunch between US and Russian officials
Photo: A joint lunch between US and Russian officials
Photo: A joint lunch between US and Russian officials
Trump's gift
The documents also contained Trump's schedule for August 15, including room numbers at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, phone numbers of all senior officials, and a phonetic transcription of 13 Russian representatives attending the summit.
Photo: Leaked documents list Trump's summit schedule and Russian representatives
Another notable detail: Trump intended to present Putin with a ceremonial gift at the conclusion of the talks. The documents read: "POTUS to President Putin: American Bald Eagle Desk Statue." It appears the gift was never handed over.
Concerns over competence
The documents were discovered on the morning of August 16 by several visitors at Hotel Captain Cook, about a 20-minute drive from the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. The papers had been left at a public printer.
One hotel guest photographed the documents and shared them with media representatives. Journalists are withholding the individual's name for security reasons. Experts described the incident as a serious breach of government secrecy and security protocols.
"It strikes me as further evidence of the sloppiness and the incompetence of the administration. You just don't leave things in printers. It's that simple," said Jon Michaels, a professor of law at UCLA who lectures about national security
Neither the White House nor the US State Department responded to requests for comment on the documents.
Trump-Putin meeting
On the evening of August 15 in Anchorage, President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The main topic was Russia's military operations in Ukraine.
Trump said no ceasefire agreement was reached during the meeting. He added that future developments now depend on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The US President advised Zelenskyy to reach an agreement with Russia, suggesting that one possible outcome could be a rapid trilateral meeting of the leaders of Ukraine, the US, and Russia.
Zelenskyy, for his part, announced that on Monday, August 18, he would travel to Washington to discuss the details of ending the war with Trump.
