President-elect Trump is planning his first meeting with a foreign leader as president to be with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a report denied by the Trump team.
A London newspaper reported Trump’s team has reached out to British officials to tell them their first meeting will likely be with Putin.
The summit would potentially in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. According to the Sunday Times, the meeting would be an attempt to emulate President Reagan’s meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986.
The Trump team disputed the report late Saturday.
“Not true,” Sean Spicer, the incoming White House press secretary, tweeted in response to multiple reports about the meeting.
not true – report is 100% false #facts https://t.co/nDSqknFD3R
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) January 15, 2017
Trump’s dogged desire to improve relations between the United States and Russia has been under scrutiny during his time as a presidential candidate and as president-elect. A 35-page unverified dossier compiled by an ex-British spy made public this week alleged Trump and the Russian government worked together to defeat Hillary Clinton in the election.
Trump long pushed back against supporting the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia was responsible for hacking into the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. He budged on Wednesday, saying during his press conference that he believes Russia was behind the hacking.
Trump called the unverified report on his relationship with Russia “fake news” and pointed to a statement from the Kremlin denying Russian officials have compromising material on Trump.
American intelligence officials have determined the Russian government ran an influence campaign on the 2016 presidential election with the goal of harming Clinton’s presidency and eventually developed a preference for Trump.
