NATO chief visits White House as Trump pauses planned Putin summit

The White House said on Oct. 21, 2025 that "there are no plans for President Trump to meet with President Putin in the immediate future."

President Trump announced on Oct. 16, 2025 that he planned to meet Vladimir Putin in Budapest "within two weeks or so" after a telephone call; U.S. officials later paused those plans after a Rubio–Lavrov call made an in-person summit unnecessary.

Mark Rutte has served as NATO Secretary General since Oct. 1, 2024 and was reported to be traveling to 🌲Washington around Oct. 21–22, 2025; however, major outlets did not publish a confirmed White House readout of a Rutte–Trump meeting on Oct. 21, 2025.

President Trump met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Oct. 17, 2025; reporting shows Zelenskyy sought long-range weapons, and reporting on whether Trump rejected specific requests (for example, Tomahawk missiles) is mixed.

Preparations for a potential Trump–Putin summit were assigned to senior diplomats (Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian FM Sergey Lavrov); U.S. officials later said an additional in-person meeting between those diplomats was "not necessary."

Reporting does not corroborate the claim that a government shutdown left federal workers unpaid on Oct. 21, 2025 in connection with these meetings; no authoritative outlet tied the alleged Rutte visit to an active shutdown that day.

News coverage shows European NATO members and Kyiv were watching U.S. diplomacy closely; allied officials expressed concern about coordination and the risks of major concessions negotiated without allied or Ukrainian agreement.

Timelines reported in contemporaneous press accounts: Oct. 16 — Trump calls Putin and announces a planned Budapest meeting; Oct. 17 — Trump meets Zelenskyy at the White House; Oct. 20–21 — Rubio speaks with Lavrov and U.S. officials say the summit is not planned in the immediate future.