Record / E-2026-0040
Meeting with Putin in Budapest said to come within two weeks is off within five days
Asked on October 16, 2025 whether he had a timeline for meeting Putin in Hungary, Trump said: Yeah, I would say within two weeks or so. Pretty quick. He restated it the following day as in about two weeks or so. On October 21, 2025, five days after the first statement, he was asked whether the meeting was canceled or put on hold and answered: I don't want to have a wasted meeting. I don't want to have a waste of time. The Budapest meeting did not take place within the stated window.
Context
The statement itself rests on a pool report, which is unedited transcription and a weaker record than a formal transcript; the outcome rests on a formal transcript, so the second half of this entry is better sourced than the first. A video or formal transcript should replace the pool report if one exists. Four days after this statement he said he would meet the Chinese president in South Korea within a similar window, and that meeting occurred on schedule; the two are recorded separately and with the same prominence.
Sources
The document identifier is the citation. The URL is a resolution mechanism, and the archived copy is what the citation resolves to when the live link dies.
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Pool Reports of October 16, 2025
Pool report, October 16, 2025, American Presidency Project
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Pool Reports of October 17, 2025
Pool report, October 17, 2025, American Presidency Project
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Remarks at a White House Diwali Celebration and an Exchange With Reporters
Remarks, October 21, 2025, American Presidency Project