MARY LOUISE KELLY, BYLINE: Welcome to Finland President Trump. I am studying from an indication that’s plastered throughout the entrance home windows of Finlayson division retailer.
I am Mary Louise Kelly in Geneva. About 100 yards away is Villa La Grange. That is this grand 18th century villa. It’s the website of the Biden Putin summit, which is arising in two days’ time.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
My co-host Mary Louise Kelly has seen her share of political tete-a-tetes all over the world. However what did she consider the latest summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska?
KELLY: This isn’t my first rodeo as summits go, and I’ve by no means seen something prefer it.
DETROW: It was type of stunning, even for a international coverage veteran like Mary Louise, from the situation – internet hosting Putin on U.S. soil after years of allegations of struggle crimes – to the group or lack thereof. Mary Louise says it was all a far cry from the type of planning that has gone into summits she has attended earlier than. And all of that planning forward – it occurs for a extremely good purpose.
KELLY: As a result of they are not simply planning whose aircraft lands first and the way will we maintain it safe and what is the motorcade association – they’re making an attempt to determine, if issues go terribly mistaken, the place’s the closest hospital? How will we get there? They’re doing contingency for contingency for contingency plans. So all of that didn’t occur the best way it often occurs.
DETROW: She says issues at this summit got here collectively so rapidly that many individuals she talked to in Anchorage weren’t even conscious that the town was the location of such a high-stakes assembly.
There’s one different incident that offers some perception into simply how shortly and chaotically all of this was organized. Company at an upscale lodge close to the summit location discovered confidential authorities paperwork on a public printer there. NPR broke that story, which detailed among the delicate data contained within the paperwork, together with, amongst different issues, the lunch menu for the 2 world leaders.
KELLY: It featured Halibut Olympia served with whipped potatoes, as I recall, and it is notable partly that paperwork are – have been left on a lodge enterprise middle printer, but additionally that the lunch by no means occurred as a result of Trump and Putin ended up popping out, taking no questions after which taking off.
DETROW: So for our newest Reporter’s Pocket book, I wished to speak to Mary Louise. I began by asking her how a lot the quantity of group and planning actually issues with regards to these sorts of summits and what all of that might point out about what’s or is just not being agreed to behind the scenes.
KELLY: To be clear, it issues not one whit whether or not the press corps that was descending on Anchorage was inconvenienced. I imply, who cares? However it does – it illuminates somewhat bit the hastiness with which this summit was slung collectively in comparison with the weeks of superior planning and, you realize, back-channel talks which might be often happening between, on this case, the Russian and American groups, you realize, the diplomats concerned, the Nationwide Safety Council employees conferences that might be concerned.
So I bear in mind sitting – the morning of the summit, as we’re ready to get underway, they’ve packed the entire reporters coming in to the Joint Military Air Drive Base Elmendorf-Richardson. This was occurring on the outskirts of Anchorage – and considering, that is disorganized in comparison with different summits that I’ve lined, and I very a lot hope that the substance of those talks, the coverage that is at stake right here, has been extra thoughtfully crafted. And, after all, we…
DETROW: Yeah.
KELLY: …Received somewhat little bit of a glimpse into that because the day unfolded.
DETROW: You lined President Biden and President Putin in 2021. You additionally lined the notorious or well-known – relying on the way you wish to put it – summit between Trump and Putin in Helsinki, which was one of many memorable moments of that first Trump administration. What, to you, was completely different this time round? – of the physique language, of the statements, of the best way – no less than what we noticed taking part in out in public – the interactions between Putin and his prime staffers and Trump and his prime staffers this time round.
KELLY: There was loads that was completely different. I imply, we nodded to that the setting was very completely different. These final two – the Biden summit with Putin was in a chateau on the shores of Lac Leman, of Lake Geneva, within the Alps. The Helsinki summit was within the presidential palace in an attractive ballroom. So there was type of nowhere to go however down by way of phrases of the setting.
DETROW: Guess so.
KELLY: That is no shade to the stunning joint base Elmendorf-Richardson, which additionally…
DETROW: Not every little thing might be Geneva.
KELLY: …Has some pretty mountains. Not every little thing might be Geneva. There was no raclette in sight. However, you realize, among the many causes that this summit was not in Europe is that Putin is now persona non grata in a lot of Europe as a result of he has been indicted for struggle crimes by the Worldwide Prison Courtroom, linked to the struggle that he began in Ukraine, which was why we have been all ending up in Alaska for this summit.In order that entire setting and the optics, you are simply excited about what has transpired because the final time that an American president sat down with a Russian president.
After which, you realize, extra critically, even, is the best way that this Alaska summit flipped the script on its head. Often, as I say, you’d have had the entire superior work, a variety of particulars being laid out, and also you want the presidents to come back and push the ball over the road. And on this case, Trump, as with many issues, likes to flip issues round. He wished the massive present, the massive actually rolling out the purple carpet for Vladimir Putin earlier than a variety of the small print had been sorted.
So we have now had two summits, the Putin summit after which on Monday on the White Home with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine and different European leaders. And now the staffers are desperately making an attempt to type out, what is the breakthrough? What is the element? What subsequent?
DETROW: I wish to ask you just a few questions on the way you method these assignments as a reporter and as one of many hosts of ALL THINGS CONSIDERED as a result of the information worth is unquestionable. Among the strongest individuals on the earth are getting collectively head to head to resolve massive issues, to attempt to resolve massive issues.
However the factor about that is – and I’ve lined a few of these occasions as a reporter as nicely – you and I and all the opposite reporters are very far-off from the place the motion is happening, and a variety of the important thing moments are happening behind closed doorways. So what are you excited about forward of time, of the forms of reporting that you will do, the way you have been going so as to add the worth of your experience in a scenario like that, the place sadly, you aren’t being requested to sit down down on the desk with Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump?
KELLY: No, though I am out there the following time in the event that they…
DETROW: Anytime.
KELLY: …In the event that they wish to have us within the room. I simply at all times circle again, as a reporter, to the worth of being there. It’s higher to be someplace and have the ability to see and listen to and sense firsthand what is going on. There are particulars you simply cannot get in case you’re not there, concerning the optics. You are choosing up on who’s sitting subsequent to who? Who appears to have whose ear? How are they arranging it? Who’s coming in first? How lengthy was that pause? These are issues which might be laborious to see and glimpse and really feel.
You are additionally getting the sense of, I am taking a look at logistics that has nothing to do with the substance, however what does that inform us about how shortly this was pulled collectively and whether or not all of the Is have been dotted and the Ts have been crossed earlier than they acquired these two presidents of Russia and america in a room. I’ve seen that touring all around the world in lower than good conditions – once you go and report from North Korea, once you go and report from Iran – good is not on the menu. However it’s an entire lot higher than not going and solely having the model that the regime, that the state in management, would love you to see and the photographs and tape that they’re releasing. You will at all times glimpse little issues.
I bear in mind being in Iran for ALL THINGS CONSIDERED just a few years again, on the top of the protests after the dying of Mahsa Amini in police custody. And we weren’t allowed to go in all places we wished to go. We weren’t allowed to go interview prisoners. Lots of people have been scared to talk to us. However we sat there one evening and heard individuals opening their home windows and calling by the evening air in Tehran. And also you could not see them, however they have been calling, marg bar dictator, dying to the dictator, dying to Khamenei, freedom.
And it was absolutely the final thing that the federal government that was internet hosting us would have wished us to listen to and report. And we might have missed it had we not gotten on that aircraft. And I take into consideration that second usually after I’m making an attempt to determine, is it going to be price it? Can we get on the aircraft? Yeah, I believe the reply is you get on the aircraft.
DETROW: Are there one or two examples of something you noticed or skilled at this final project, massive or small, that type of knowledgeable the story to you in a manner that I, watching on a video feed in Washington, D.C., wouldn’t have seen, wouldn’t have been capable of decide up?
KELLY: Simply the physique language of seeing, for instance, Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, a person who’s now charged with the diplomacy on Ukraine and Russia. He is additionally dealing with diplomacy on the Center East. It is a man who had no diplomatic expertise till this 12 months however who Trump trusts and likes. And he got here within the room, did not look comfortable after which instantly rotated and left. After which the opposite individuals – the pinnacle of each delegations – begin filtering into the room, and also you’re studying the physique language and studying what individuals appear like.
And the presidents themselves – you realize, Trump, as you realize nicely, as a former White Home correspondent, Scott – Trump likes to take questions. He is always posting on social media. So when he got here out, let Putin converse first, took no questions, did not even attempt to form this as a win, it was telling.
DETROW: Yeah. It is a sort of story that you have been drawn to over time, and I am questioning what it’s about statecraft, about summits, about type of the individuals who run nations getting collectively in a room to attempt to work out issues – what’s it that pulls you that makes you suppose, that is the actual sort of story that I can actually make my very own, that I wish to lean into and hit the highway for?
KELLY: By way of my careers, I’ve lined diplomacy, intelligence, nationwide safety. They’re the entire massive summary themes. They’re the entire staffers making an attempt to determine, which little element can we put in place? If we give on this, what are we going to need to, you realize, allow them to tackle that? However it’s at all times fascinated me, as a scholar of historical past, generally it does simply come all the way down to getting a few individuals on the proper second in a room, and that may change the world – the facility of 1, two, just a few individuals – to vary the world and the trajectory of a rustic, begin a struggle, finish a struggle. How fascinating is that?
And to have the possibility to glimpse that, even from nicely outdoors the room – however to observe how which may come collectively in that second the place you suppose, wow, like, there is likely to be a breakthrough right here. We’ve an opportunity. That is fascinating to doc. It is fascinating to observe, and it is fascinating to attempt to clarify that in actual time. This is the place we’re. This is what we see. This is what we’re listening to. Listed here are the questions that we do not know the solutions to, however we’re pushing for them. To share that with our viewers – how nice is that? I might pay you to let me try this.
DETROW: That’s Mary Louise Kelly, my co-host at ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, simply again from yet one more presidential summit, this time in Anchorage, Alaska, with President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Thanks for coming by.
KELLY: My pleasure, Scott. Thanks for having me.
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts might fluctuate. Transcript textual content could also be revised to right errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org could also be edited after its authentic broadcast or publication. The authoritative document of NPR’s programming is the audio document.
