Trump didn't even offer Putin a meal, and the US-Russia summit ended abruptly within hours, with the Russian presidential plane immediately departing.
After six years, Trump met Putin again and, leveraging the US Air Force's geographical advantage, launched a "hard-and-soft" approach.
The meeting was originally scheduled for a one-on-one discussion, but was ultimately rescheduled to a three-on-three meeting. US Secretary of State Rubio and Special Envoy Witkov accompanied Trump, while Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Presidential Assistant Ushakov accompanied Putin.
The "Trump-Putin meeting" ended more quickly than expected. After nearly three hours of negotiations and a brief press conference, Putin boarded his flight back to Russia, and Trump immediately returned to Washington. The previously scheduled luncheon meeting between the US and Russian delegations was canceled.
Neither side explained the reason for the cancellation, but based on the statements made by both Trump and Putin, it seems both the US and Russia were racing against time to finalize the relevant content of the meeting. Another possibility is that one shouldn't stay in a fraught situation for long. Honestly, Putin is still very dangerous, after all, Trump himself was assassinated.
As the saying goes, no matter how well Trump and Putin talk, if Ukraine doesn't agree, the rest of the process will be difficult to proceed.
In fact, the one-on-one meeting between Trump and Putin was ultimately changed to a three-on-three meeting, likely due to the push of the EU and Ukraine. If Trump and Putin had met one-on-one, Putin might have won. Trump would need a Russia hawk like Rubio to hold him in line.
Putin knows that if he wants to deal with Trump, who considers himself a businessman, and gain benefits from him, he absolutely needs to pay tribute.
Aluminum and rare earths are far from enough now. Russia needs to offer more benefits to "trade" with Trump, and all of this requires Putin to personally plan it back home in preparation for the next "Trump-Putin meeting" expected to take place in Moscow.
