President Trump’s decision to invite his Russian counterpart to Washington shocked everyone. After Helsinki summit misspoke about Kremlin’s meddling in 2016 election and a stir in mass media such an unexpected invitation looks strange, Financial Times reported.
Donald Trump moved to invite Vladimir Putin to Washington this autumn, even as the top intelligence official in the US said he wished the meeting between the two leaders this week had gone differently.
According to the White House press secretary, Mr Trump had asked his national security adviser, John Bolton, to extend the invitation to Mr Putin and that discussion on an autumn meeting was underway.
The news emerged as Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, was on the stage at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. When asked about it, Mr Coates appeared to be caught off guard. With a laugh, he said: “That’s going to be special.”
For press, the content of the two-hour private meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Putin on Monday in Helsinki remains a secret, as time goes by the public would learn more. Dan Coats added that “the risk is always there” that the Kremlin people had recorded the discussion.
“If he [Mr Trump] had asked me how that ought to be conducted, I would have suggested a different way,”
Mr Coats said before an audience that included intelligence professionals.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump tweeted the Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin was a “great success” and people at “higher ends of intelligence” loved his news conference. The misspoke about Russia’s meddling in the presidential elections in 2016 Trump preferred to omit. from its very beginning, Trump’s presidency has been clouded by allegations that Kremlin hackers meddled in the presidential election in his favour. Russia denies any allegations.
