Trump's 'Going to Russia' Gaffe Steals Spotlight from Upcoming Alaska Meeting with Putin (WATCH)

US President Donald Trump’s slip-up claiming he’s “going to Russia” instead of Alaska for a meeting with Vladimir Putin sparked online jokes. The high-stakes summit will be held in Alaska, a state with deep Russian historical roots.

US President Donald Trump sparked a flurry of online jokes on Monday after an eyebrow-raising slip at a press conference. “I’m gonna see Putin. I’m going to Russia on Friday,” Trump declared, in what White House officials reportedly later clarified was a simple misstatement.

Trump, joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, was addressing homelessness and the surge in crime in Washington, DC, when he brought up his upcoming high-profile meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The actual meeting between Trump and Vladimir Putin is set to take place in Alaska and will focus on the Ukraine war.

Scroll to load tweet…

From “Russia” to Alaska: A High-Stakes Meeting on Historic Ground

The leaders’ summit will be held in America’s far northwest — a place the United States purchased from Russia more than 150 years ago for $7.2 million. Back then, critics called it “Seward’s folly”, convinced the vast icy territory was a waste of money.

Today, Alaska is more than twice the size of Texas, and while it may be firmly American, traces of its Russian past still linger.

A Land Once Ruled by the Tsar

In 1728, Danish explorer Vitus Bering, on a mission for Tsarist Russia, sailed through the narrow strait that now bears his name, revealing Alaska’s existence to the West — though Indigenous communities had already called it home for millennia.

Russian seal hunters soon followed, setting up the first colony on Kodiak Island. In 1799, Tsar Paul I created the Russian-American Company to exploit the booming fur trade, but overhunting decimated the seal and sea otter populations, collapsing the local economy.

By 1867, the Russian empire decided to cash out, selling Alaska to Washington.

Churches, Language and the “Old Believers”

The Russian Orthodox Church, which arrived alongside the fur traders, remains one of the most enduring influences on Alaskan culture. More than 35 churches with onion-shaped domes still line the state’s coast.

A hybrid Russian-Indigenous dialect once existed in certain communities, though it has almost disappeared. Yet, on the Kenai Peninsula, Russian is still being taught in a small Orthodox “Old Believers” school established in the 1960s.

Close Neighbours — and a Famous Line

Sarah Palin, then Alaska’s governor, famously said in 2008:

“They’re our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.”

While mainland Alaska offers no such view, two islands in the Bering Strait — Russia’s Big Diomede and America’s Little Diomede — are separated by just 2.5 miles.

In October 2022, two Russians landed on St. Lawrence Island seeking asylum, fleeing Putin’s unpopular mobilisation order during the Ukraine invasion.

The US military routinely intercepts Russian aircraft approaching American airspace over Alaska. Still, Putin has brushed off any idea of reclaiming it, famously saying in 2014 that Alaska is “too cold.”

Social Media Has a Field Day

Trump’s latest slip was quickly seized upon by social media users with one user on X stating, “Geography ain’t Trump’s strong subject. Dude , Alaska is in the US and not in Russia.”

While the actual meeting will take place firmly on American soil, the President’s off-the-cuff remark ensured that the road to the Alaska summit began with a diplomatic detour — into the land of internet ridicule.

“Trump’s going to Alaska and he thinks he’s going to Russia. Where is the reporting about his mental decline?” quipped another user on X.

A third user remarked, “Did Trump just say he’s going to Russia to meet Putin? Bye bye Alaska.”

Here’s a look at some of the reactions to Trump’s latest gaffe on X: