From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.

No rest for Donald Trump in August as the president sets up a summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska for Friday of this week.

Mr. Trump's goal is to make progress towards settling the long-running war in

Ukraine, though the president of Ukraine so far, Volodymyr Zelensky was not invited. Is Russia

making any concessions here? And what are the outline of a possible deal that both sides

could accept also.

The president named Stephen Marin, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers to fill a temporary spot on the Federal Reserve Board.

What does that mean for the Fed and interest rates going forward?

Welcome. I'm Paul as you go here on the Potomac Watch podcast,

a daily podcast, Wall Street Journal Opinion. I'm here today with Joe Sternberg and

Julian Melcher, both of our London-based correspondents. Gillian has made several trips to Ukraine

since the war began in February of 2022, most recently, just a few weeks ago.

So Trump had a Friday deadline that he had given to Vladimir Putin about making progress

towards a ceasefire. Trump let that pass and did not impose any sanctions. Instead, he announced after a visit by his

special envoy, Steve Whitkoff, to Moscow this summit on Friday in Alaska. And let's listen to Trump

explain briefly today why he's going. I'm going to meet with President Putin, and we're going to see what he has in mind.

And if it's a fair deal, I'll reveal it to the European Union leaders and to the NATO leaders

and also to President Zelensky.

I think out of respect, I'll call him first, and then I'll call them after. And I may say,

lots of luck, keep fighting. All right, let's listen as well to J.D. Vance,

Vice President on Sunday on Fox News, explain what he thinks the president is going to do and what

the possible outline of a settlement could be. Vladimir Putin said that he would never sit down with Zelensky, the head of Ukraine,

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