JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska – When a door swung open to the small room where President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin were holding an historic sit-down meeting, I had barely caught my breath.

I had just run from a van about 100 yards away to the building where Trump and Putin were set to hold high stakes talks on the war in Ukraine.

White House staff urged us to hurry into the room because Trump and Putin were already inside. Indeed, it was a madhouse as the American and Russian press jockeyed for photos and shouted questions that would go unanswered.

“Thank you very much, everybody,” Trump said, signaling he was ready for the press to leave.

I flew aboard Air Force One as part of the group of reporters, known as the traveling press pool, who document the president’s movements for those who can’t be with him on such trips. The day began around 6 a.m. Friday and ended just after 3 a.m. early Saturday morning with the president essentially making a day trip to the Last Frontier state.

I witnessed the carefully choreographed greeting between the two leaders. I was in the room for the frenetic opening moments of their sit-down summit, and I watched as members of the press were stunned to see Trump and Putin walk off stage without taking a single question at what was billed as a joint press conference.

The entire trip had an unpredictable pace to it, which can often be the case when part of the travel pool. Long stretches of waiting for a presidential movement are punctuated by rapid developments that force........

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