This is Washington Edition, the newsletter about money, power and politics in the nation’s capital. Today, senior editor Joe Sobczyk looks at what comes next after the president’s summit with Putin. Sign up here and follow us at @bpolitics. Email our editors here.

Expectations

President Donald Trump is already looking beyond his meeting on Friday with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Trump, who has been lowering expectations for any kind of peace deal for Ukraine emerging from the summit in Alaska, said today he’s aiming for a truce that the would set up a “quick second meeting” involving Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

But only if things go well. Trump said if he “didn’t get the answers that we have to have, then we’re not going to have a second meeting.”

And he warned Putin there would be “ very severe consequences” if a ceasefire isn’t forthcoming. 

Trump Photographer: Kayla Bartkowski/Bloomberg

That was seconded by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Bloomberg TV today. He said that sanctions to penalize Russia can be tightened or loosened, depending on the outcome of Friday’s talks. 

He also said that for US allies that have been cool to the idea putting secondary sanctions on nations that buy Russian oil, “It’s put up or shut up time.”

The lead-up to the Trump-Putin meeting has been all about trans-Atlantic consultation and cooperation. The US president, who often has pursued a go-it-alone foreign policy, had an hour-long conference call this morning with European leaders and Zelenskiy.

Trump has previously said both Ukraine and Russia will have to cede land to end the war, raising fears in Europe that he’ll push the government in Kyiv to give up territory. 

Russia, meanwhile, has continued to press its offensive deeper into Ukraine. Moscow is demanding that Ukraine cede its entire eastern Donbas region and Crimea, which Putin’s forces illegally annexed in 2014, as a condition for a ceasefire and the opening of negotiations on a settlement.

Trump said he’d consult with Zelenskiy and other European leaders after his meeting with Putin ends.

European leaders are pressing Trump to avoid making promises on behalf of Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron said after the call that any decision on possible concessions on territory will need to be made by Ukraine.

“Until there is a ceasefire and a lasting peace, we must continue to support Ukraine, and when I say we I mean Europeans and Americans,” Macron said. — Joe Sobczyk

Don’t Miss

Trump said he may name the next Federal Reserve chair “a little bit early” and that he was down to three or four potential candidates as he looks for a successor to Jerome Powell.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made his most explicit call yet for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, suggesting the central bank’s benchmark ought to be at least 1.5 percentage points lower than it is now.

Bessent also said the recent deal to let Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices resume lower-end AI chip sales to China if they give the US a 15% cut of the related revenue could serve as a model for others.

Trump said he would ask Congress to give him extended authority over the Washington, DC, police department and to provide new funding for beautification projects in the city.

Federal agents assigned to patrol Washington as part of the federal takeover of the capital have been pulled from specialized assignments and placed into sometimes unfamiliar field roles.

The Trump administration can cut billions of dollars in foreign assistance funds approved by Congress for this year, a federal appeals court ruled in a significant win for the president.

The Federal Trade Commission got a skeptical reception from a judge over its targeting of a nonprofit in an investigation into alleged advertising boycotts of conservative websites. 

Former Bureau of Labor Statistics officials said Trump’s pick to lead the agency may be able to carry out some smaller reforms, but larger changes will be tough to implement.

Trump announced he will host the Kennedy Center Honors, which will go to actor Sylvester Stallone, rock band Kiss and singer Gloria Gaynor among others. He also plans to renovate the performing arts center.

A lawsuit accusing billionaire Elon Musk of unlawfully directing the closing of the US Agency for International Development can move ahead over Trump administration objections, a Maryland federal judge ruled.

Watch & Listen

Today on Bloomberg Television’s Balance of Power early edition at 1 p.m., host Joe Mathieu interviewed Jennifer Kavanagh, senior fellow and director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, about what to watch for when Trump’s meets with Putin on Friday.

On the program at 5 p.m., he talks with former Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried about the Trump-Putin summit and the current situation in Ukraine.

On the Trumponomics podcast, host Stephanie Flanders, Bloomberg’s head of government and economics, talks with Barry Eichengreen, professor of economics and political science at the University of California Berkeley, and Bloomberg senior Washington correspondent Saleha Mohsin about how reserve currencies come about, how the US dollar ascended to that role and what happens if it falls back to earth. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Chart of the Day

You can still get a very large home — one bigger than 5,000 square feet — for less than $1 million in most metro areas. But it’s getting harder, and if you live on either coast, you probably are going to have a long search. In June 2021, almost half of all mansion-size houses were valued at less than $1 million, according to Zillow. Today, just 3 in 10 are, and that share is much lower along the coasts. In the New York City metro, only 15.5% of 5,000 square-foot homes cost less than $1 million. In Los Angeles that share is just 1%. Meanwhile in Atlanta more than one-third of large homes cost less than $1 million. In the Washington, DC, area the share is 16.3%, and up I-95 in Baltimore around 22% of mansions can be purchased for less than $1 million. — Alex Tanzi

What’s Next

The producer price index for July will be reported tomorrow.

Retail sales for July will be reported on Friday.

Data on import and export prices in July will be reported Friday.

The University of Michigan’s preliminary read of consumer sentiment will be released Friday.

Housing starts and building permits for July will be reported on Aug. 19.

Minutes from the Fed’s last meeting will be released Aug. 20.

Existing home sales in July are set to be reported Aug. 21.

The House and Senate are on break until Sept. 2.

Seen Elsewhere

• The White House plans to vet Smithsonian museum exhibitions, online content and curatorial processes to make sure they align with Trump's views about portraying the country's history, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• Most of the personal choices Americans make to lessen their contribution to climate change actually do relatively little, while others — like owning a dog — add to greenhouse gas emissions, the Associated Press reports.
• The discovery by scientist of 13 teeth in northeastern Ethiopia adds new evidence about the complexity of human evolution and may reveal an entirely new species, the Washington Post reports.

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