American officials quickly discovered a major snag in planning for the summit: summertime is peak tourist season in Alaska, and options both available and equipped to host the two world leaders were severely limited.

The Trump administration has played down expectations of a peace deal at Friday’s summit between the US and Russian presidents, saying Ukraine would have to be party to any agreement. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin would be a “listening exercise”,