President Trump said Thursday he is looking forward to his second meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, even as he faces intense criticism over his comments relating to his summit with his Russian counterpart last week.
In tweets sent Thursday morning, Trump lashed out at the “Fake News Media,” calling it the “real enemy of the people” and blaming it for the backlash he’s received for his comments about Russian interference in the 2016 election.
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“The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media. I look forward to our second meeting so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed,” Trump wrote.
The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media. I look forward to our second meeting so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed, including stopping terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear……..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2018
Trump said the two leaders discussed “stopping terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear proliferation, cyberattacks, trade, Ukraine, Middle East peace, North Korea and more.”
….proliferation, cyber attacks, trade, Ukraine, Middle East peace, North Korea and more. There are many answers, some easy and some hard, to these problems…but they can ALL be solved!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2018
Trump’s tweet sheds some light on what he may have discussed with Putin during their one-on-one meeting in Helsinki. Russian officials have said “important verbal agreements” were reached, but U.S. officials were still trying to determine what Trump may have agreed to relating to national security, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Trump and Putin’s private meeting involved no other officials or note-takes beyond two interpreters in the room.
[Related: Chuck Schumer demands notes from Trump’s closed meeting with Putin]
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters in Tuesday’s press briefing that a number of topics were discussed.
“Syrian humanitarian aid, Iran’s nuclear ambition, Israeli security, North Korean denuclearization, Ukraine and the occupation of Crimea, reducing Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals, and of course your favorite topic, Russia’s interference in our elections,” she said.
Trump has been widely condemned for his comments during a press conference with Putin, in which he dismissed Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump praised Putin as “extremely strong and powerful” when asked whether he believes Putin’s denial or the assessment of the U.S. intelligence community. He also attacked the FBI and asked about the Democratic National Committee’s email server and Hillary Clinton’s missing emails.
The president and White House officials have since sought to clarify the remarks, but have caused more confusion about whether the president misspoke during the press conference, as he claimed.
[Opinion: Trump’s Putin press conference walk-back is not actually a walk-back]
A day after the summit, Trump said he has “full faith” in the U.S. intelligence community and accepts its conclusion that Moscow launched cyberattacks against Democratic Party officials and state election systems in the most recent presidential election.
Then on Wednesday, Trump said “no” when asked whether Russia was still targeting the U.S., which Sanders later said had been merely intended as a refusal to answer questions from reporters. In an interview with CBS that aired later Wednesday, Trump said he would indeed accept Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats’ assessment that Russian attempts to interfere in U.S. elections were still ongoing.
