Trump suffers another geography fail after calling Alaska ‘Russia’ as he rants ahead of Putin meeting: ‘Leningrad free’
Two days after he twice said he was ‘going to Russia’ for his Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump used a Soviet-era name to describe Russia’s second-largest city as he attacked a former adviser on social media.
Writing on Truth Social to complain about “very unfair media” coverage of his upcoming summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin, he said the press would even go so far to say he’d made a “bad deal” even if he reached an agreement for the United States to acquire “Moscow and Leningrad” without giving up anything in return.
The president appeared to be unaware of one small detail: The city he called “Leningrad” is actually called St. Petersburg and has been since city residents voted to ditch the Soviet-era name in June 1991.
It was the second embarrassing geographic mix-up in three days for Trump, who on Monday also appeared to forget that the site of his sit-down with Putin (a former mayor of St. Petersburg) is happening on sovereign American territory in Alaska.
During a press conference on Monday, he claimed he was “going to Russia” to meet Putin even though Alaska has been American territory since the United States purchased the vast area from Czar Alexander II of the Russian Empire for the modest sum of $7.2 million.
As he addressed reporters regarding crime in Washington, DC and his plans to deploy the National Guard and put the city’s police under his control, Trump said: “You know, I’m going to see Putin. I’m going to Russia on Friday.”
He is set to meet with the Russian president to discuss bringing an end to the war in Ukraine that Russia initiated when it invaded the sovereign nation in February 2022.
“The highly anticipated meeting between myself, as President of the United States of America, and President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, will take place next Friday, August 15, 2025, in the Great State of Alaska,” Trump posted last week on Truth Social.
