This continually gets passed around, but it's the result of bad journalism. It was a comment made by one of the developers and was never an official comment/statement from Microsoft.
Just adding for the record that I despise Microsoft, so I'm not trying to defend them. Just always see this referenced and figure it's better to set the record straight.
Headline is a bit misleading:
There has been no confirmation that such a proposal is on the table, and Newsweek has contacted the White House and the office of Alaska's governor for comment. The Telegraph cited a White House statement that it did not comment "on deliberative conversations that may or may not be happening."
I loathe Trump and won't be surprised if he does in fact offer this, but he hasn't actually proposed it to Putin yet.
Did something happen recently that triggered this being posted now?
Yeah, what an incredibly stupid opinion.