Russian Federation slams arrest of alleged spy Maria Butina as unacceptable

President Donald Trump says that getting along with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “is a positive, not a negative” – and if things don’t work out, “I’ll be the worst enemy he’s ever had”.

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats seemed to have been in the dark about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s White House invitation.

Trump sided with Putin over the USA intelligence community on the subject of Russian election interference during a press conference in Helsinki on Monday, only to walk back on his statements upon returning to the US.

Dan Coats on July 21 issued a statement after US media reported Trump was angry with an interview the DNI gave at the Aspen Institute security forum in Colorado on July 19, when he laughed and at times appeared to mock the president.

Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, a former Central Intelligence Agency agent, said in a New York Times op-ed that Russian Federation is manipulating Trump.

Another former Trump administration official told Business Insider that at the moment, the person within the White House who has the most influence with Trump in regards to advice on how to handle such a crisis is Bill Shine, the former Fox News executive who was recently hired as deputy chief of staff for communications. “It is what it is”, Coats said. “If you look at every criteria – the president’s policy is tough”, he said, adding, “But the Democrats have a problem with his words”.

The day after, Trump was back in Washington and said he does accept the intelligence community’s conclusion, but added: “It could be other people also – there’s a lot of people out there”. Trump was initially warm to the proposal, proposed by Vladimir Putin, calling it “an incredible offer”. On Tuesday, the Russian general prosecutor’s office said to little fanfare that Putin misspoke and meant $400 000.

“Russia was always open to such proposals”, ambassador Anatoly Antonov said, The Associated Press reported. “We are ready for discussions on this subject”.

On Twitter, Trump listed topics he and Putin talked about, but gave no details.

There are hopes inside the administration that the next summit will be more traditional, with U.S. and Russian negotiators meeting ahead of time to set up an agenda and try to reach agreement on some issues.

Sanders said in a press briefing that topics discussed on Monday included, “Syrian humanitarian aid, Iran’s nuclear ambition, Israeli security, North Korean denuclearization, Ukraine and the occupation of Crimea, reducing Russian and USA nuclear arsenals, and of course, your favorite topic, Russia’s interference in our elections”.

Then he and other administration officials had to “clarify” his statement to reporters that Russian Federation wasn’t still targeting the United States.

There was also the fact that he said both countries were to blame for the deterioration in US-Russia relations and the fact that he failed to publicly condemn President Putin while standing alongside him. He did not spell out what they were.

“The White House later denied that Trump made the comment, saying his “no” was directed at further questions”.

Trump and Putin just sat down in Finland for a more than 2-hour meeting in which election meddling took center stage.

But election meddling wasn’t the only issue to come out of the summit.