‘Me pretending not to hear my coworkers’: Putin becomes meme just minutes into high-stakes Alaska summit with Trump

Just minutes after the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin kicked off, social media users have already turned Putin’s expression into a meme.

Although the world leaders’ first one-on-one meeting in seven years was supposed to be focused on Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Russian president’s facial expressions — a series of befuddled looks, eyes darting around with a furrowed brow — seem to have already stolen the show. Putin made the faces when reporters bombarded him with questions in the first few moments of the summit.

X users quickly turned his expressions into memes.

“Confused when asked real questions,” one X user wrote.

“Me pretending not to hear my coworker asking for help setting up the Teams meetings,” yet another quipped.

“TFW you remember you’re in a country where you can’t just poison the press when they get too loud,” another remarked.

“What am I even doing here? What the f*** are they saying?” another said.

The RT X account, formerly Russia Today, also remarked on the questions being yelled at Putin, posting a clip of another moment from the summit: “American press shout questions at Putin, but Russian prez plays it cool.”

Earlier in the day, Trump told Fox News Channel's Bret Baier on Air Force One on the way to Alaska, he has high hopes for a ceasefire: “I wouldn’t be thrilled if I didn’t get it.”

The U.S. President expressed he hopes for a second meeting on Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Before landing, Trump posted a brief, yet ominous, message on Truth Social: “HIGH STAKES!!!”

He has vowed that the Russian president is “not going to mess around” with him as he tries to secure a ceasefire deal.

On Thursday, Putin hailed Trump’s “sincere efforts” towards ending the war in Ukraine, telling Kremlin officials the U.S. is making “quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the fighting.”

Both world leaders touched down in Anchorage on Friday morning.

Trump rolled out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, greeting the leader warmly before they both hopped into U.S. President’s limousine, nicknamed “The Beast.”

The meeting began at 11 a.m. local time. The summit marks the first time Trump and Putin have seen one another in six years. They last spoke face-to-face at the G20 in Osaka, Japan in 2019.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will not be making an appearance at Friday’s high-stakes meeting. But Trump has floated the idea of bringing in European leaders, including Zelensky, for a second round of negotiations.