'A picture is worth a thousand words': Trump hangs picture of himself with Putin in White House

The picture shows the pair stood, side by side, at a Ukraine peace summit in Anchorage, Alaska last year.

The image sits, pride of place, above a snap of Mr Trump with his granddaughter, Carolina Trump, at the Daytona International Speedway racetrack in Florida.

Elizabeth Landers, reporter for PBS News Hour, said she saw the image in a vestibule area connecting the West Wing to the residence.

Kirill Dmitriev, Russia’s key negotiator, responded "Good. A picture is worth a thousand words" alongside emojis of the US flag and Russian flag.

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Senator Mark Warner slammed the move, writing on X: "Putting Putin above the American people and his own family. Almost a little too on the nose."

This comes as the Kremlin announced this week that the Alaska summit would feature in an updated version of school history textbooks, to be rolled out next academic year.

Previously, Mr Trump said he was "p*****d off at Mr Putin after the Kremlin called for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to step down.

However, earlier this week envoys from Russia and the US for Ukraine peace meetings.

Mr Putin demanded Ukraine would need to hand over territory for peace to be achieved.

Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov, who participated in Mr Putin's meeting with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, said "it was reaffirmed that reaching a long-term settlement can't be expected without solving the territorial issue".

His comments are a reference to Moscow's demand that Kyiv withdraws its troops from the areas in the east that Russia illegally annexed but never fully captured.

The meeting follows Mr Zelenskyy's criticism of his European allies for what he portrayed as the continent's slow and inadequate response to Russia's invasion nearly four years ago.

"Europe looks lost," Mr Zelenskyy said in his speech, urging the continent to become a global force. He contrasted Europe's response with Washington's bold steps in Venezuela and Iran.

The former comic actor referred to the movie Groundhog Day, in which the main character must relive the same day over and over again.

"Just last year, here in Davos, I ended my speech with the words: Europe needs to know how to defend itself. A year has passed. And nothing has changed. We are still in a situation where I must say the same words again," Mr Zelenskyy said.

He said that Ukrainians too seem caught in that reality in the war, "repeating the same thing for weeks, months and, of course, for years. And yet that is exactly how we live now. It's our life."

Ukraine is short of money and, despite significantly boosting its own arms manufacturing, still needs Western weaponry. It is also short-handed on the front line.

Its defence minister last week reported some 200,000 troop desertions and draft-dodging by about two million Ukrainians.