Some of the president's advisers have argued against a summit with Putin before the election, according to the people familiar with the discussions. The aides are concerned that a summit with Putin would embolden the Russian leader at a time when Moscow is provoking the U.S., including interfering in the 2020 election and possibly offering money to militants in Afghanistan in exchange for killing American troops.
There are also concerns among administration officials that a summit could hurt the president politically because it would revive attacks from his opponents that he's too cozy with Russia, the people familiar with the discussions said. From their perspective, these people said, any potential upside of Trump striking an arms control deal is outweighed by the downside at a time when he's already trailing in the polls.
Trump has held a handful of in-person meetings with Putin since taking office, including a 2018 summit in Helsinki, Finland, that was widely seen as disastrous for the president. Trump excluded his top aides from the meeting and said afterward that he believed Putin over U.S. intelligence officials on whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
He's also spoken frequently with Putin on the phone since taking office, most recently on July 23.
Russia was expelled from the G8 in 2014 after annexing the Crimea region in Ukraine. Other members include Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Japan, and Canada.
If Trump and Putin meet one on one, a looming question is whether Trump will bring up reports that Russia has offered incentive payments to the Taliban to target American troops in Afghanistan. Trump has called the reports a hoax and downplayed the strength of the intelligence. But during an interview in Prague this week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he raised the issue with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
