Donald Trump Meets Vladimir Putin In Finland: Highlights

On both Saturday and Sunday, he played played a round of golf at his company’s course in Turnberry, Scotland.

Referencing the Steele dossier that suggested the Russians collected “kompromat” on Trump during his stay in Moscow years before he became president, Putin stated he had no idea Trump was in town and didn’t really care that he was, much less wanting to gather dirt on him.

A second, expanded bilateral meeting with presidential aides followed the first session.

At the same time, Trump has floated the idea of allowing Russian Federation back into the G7, making it the G8.

Putin said: “It is obvious to everyone that bilateral ties are going through a hard period”. His approach seemed to be something like: A meeting for a meeting’s sake. We are the two great nuclear powers, we have 90 percent of the world’s nuclear [weapons]. I do believe in meetings. Before the “one on one meeting”, the U.S. president said that getting along with Russian Federation would be a “good thing, not a bad thing”. “Nothing bad is going to come out of it, and maybe some good will come out”.

Welcome to Mic’s daily read on Donald Trump’s America. We’ll be talking a little bit about China. “I think the DNC should be ashamed of themselves for allowing themselves to be hacked”. And we’ll see what happens.

“My message would be: We know what you’re doing and we know you know what you’re doing and what we’re doing … you make the choice”.

That battle of the palms with Japan’s prime minister a year ago was half in jest but there were no jokes as Mr Trump, 72, and Mr Putin, 65, kicked off talks in the Finnish capital. He noted that, like many countries, the United States has an extradition treaty with Russian Federation, where a country agrees to turn over someone in one country who is accused of criminal activity in another.

Trump’s apparent disavowal of his own Federal Bureau of Investigation and intelligence agencies immediately provoked a firestorm back home, even in his own party. “We ran a brilliant campaign and that’s why I’m president”, he said.

The response came after Trump declined to endorse the United States intelligence community’s finding that the Russians. interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.

On Friday, a federal grand jury charged the 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democratic computer networks in 2016 in the most detailed United States accusation yet that Moscow meddled in the election to help Republican Donald Trump.

“I hadn’t thought of that”, he said.

Rudy Giuliani, the lawyer who is aiding Mr. Trump in the Russian Federation investigation, used Rosenstein’s announcement as an opportunity to call on Mueller to end his investigation and declare Mr. Trump’s innocence.

Trump made the brief remarks in front of reporters, at a conference table surrounded by top officials at the start of a “working lunch” that began after he and Putin met behind closed doors for two hours with only their interpreters. “Why didn’t they do something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in September, before the Election?”

Putin was asked directly if he had some compromising information on Trump. US Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, said Monday morning it was “likely”. He may deny it. I mean, it’s one of those things. “I hope so”, he said.

The summit started late because Putin arrived in Helsinki about a half hour behind schedule in another display of the Russian’s leader famous lack of punctuality.

Trump “didn’t want details of their conversation to leak”.

“Not mentioning the fact that Russian Federation annexed territory in Crimea and sparked a war – 10,000 people have died in Eastern Ukraine”. Syria, the Middle East and Ukraine all in one subject of conversation – a conversation to which Russian Federation hard-liners in his administration would likely object.

Trump’s aim may be more modest.

Back in July 2016, Mr. Trump tweeted that the “new joke in town” is Russian Federation leaked the “disastrous DNC emails”. I will say this: “I don’t see any reason why it would be”, Trump said. “I don’t think you’ll have any, ‘Gee, I did it”. But ultimately, he’s a competitor.

Russian Federation has no extradition treaty with the United States, so it is unlikely that the Russian Federation would turn the intelligence officials over to the U.S.to stand trial. So, in a sense, we’re competitors. “#Putin is not our friend; he’s an enemy to our freedom”, Kinzinger tweeted. He’s not my enemy.

This has been Trump’s refrain over and over, though generally less personally. “I’ve been saying and I am sure you have heard over the years and as I campaigned that getting along with Russian Federation is a good thing, not a bad thing”.

Trump also told reporters he is willing to discuss ending joint military exercises with the Baltic states if Putin asks. His remarks, siding with a foe on foreign soil over his own government, was a stark illustration of Trump’s willingness to upend decades of USA foreign policy and rattle Western allies in service of his political concerns.