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Donald Trump said he and Vladimir Putin, who, according to US intelligence agencies, were ingesting him in the 2016 US presidential election, had a friendly relationship.
In this photo taken on July 16, 2018, US President Donald Trump (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrive for a meeting in Helsinki. Photo: AFP.
WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump has defended his efforts to establish a relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, saying that they "heard" well but their conversations were "not always conciliatory" ".
The Republican president on Thursday invited Putin to Washington for a second meeting in the fall, defying a barrage of critics in the United States who followed the first official summit of the two leaders on Monday in Helsinki.
A meeting between Trump and Putin with only present interpreters was unknown, even to senior US officials and lawmakers who said they had not been informed.
Trump said Putin and he had "Look, the point is that we get on well," he told CNBC in a recorded interview on Thursday
. I do not agree on everything.
"So I had a meeting that lasted more than two hours.This was not always conciliatory in this meeting," Trump said, without specifying. "Trump stunned the world with Putin's side in Helsinki following the discovery of US intelligence agencies that Moscow had carried out a piracy and influence operation intended to influence the 2016 White House.
The president's comments prompted senior intelligence officials in his administration, along with other Republican congressional leaders, to reaffirm the findings that Russia had attempted to influence US voters.
The gap between Trump and his own advisers on Russia, National Intelligence Director Dan Coats was surprised by the news that Trump had invited Putin to Washington.
Coats learned of Trump's decision at the same time as everyone else – when he was being announced on Twitter by the White House while he was being interviewed at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.
"OK," said Coats, laughing. "It's going to be special."
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