President Trump’s public skepticism about his own intelligence services’ conclusions on Russian hacking in the 2016 election, combined with an ad hoc approach to last week’s summit with Vladimir Putin, created a political fiasco for the administration and a missed opportunity to address serious cybersecurity challenges with Russia.

Trump, at a July 16 press conference with Putin in Helsinki, cited the Russian’s “strong and powerful” denial of any role in election meddling during their one-on-one meeting, seeming to offer that as a counter to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats’ report to the president on Russian interference in the election.