We do not trust Russia or Putin, says Haley as Trump Backtracks on the Helsinki Summit

Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the UN, defended the recent one-on-one summit of President Donald Trump with Russian President Vladimir Putin, insisting that Russia "will never be our friend ". Putin's summit, which took place in Finland last week, closed a calamitous trip to Europe by the US leader, during which he seemed to delight his disconcerting allies by criticizing German and British leaders, while calling into question the purpose of NATO. However, when he met Putin, Trump was much less aggressive, accusing his country of mediocre ties with Russia and suggesting that he believed that Putin's refusal to ingest the elections had an impact on his own intelligence agencies. "President Putin says that it is not Russia, I do not see why this would happen," he said.

In an apparent flip-flop, Trump later asserted that he had misquoted: "I see no reason why it would not be Russia."

Haley tried to reassure the public about the meeting, saying that Trump's meeting with his Russian "First of all, we do not trust Russia, we do not trust Putin, we will never do it, "Haley told the Christian Broadcasting Network. "They're never going to be our friend … it's just a fact."

The fact that Trump's comments came after a long private meeting with Putin, and there has not yet been definitive reading of what they discussed, boosted Trump's confidence in Russia. Moscow officials have repeatedly cited "agreements" reached at the summit, while US officials still seemed to be unaware of the exact talking points a few days later.

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Trump has further heightened the confusion when his press officer announced on Twitter that Putin would be invited to Washington for a second meeting at 39. ;autumn. Haley, however, insisted that the fallout around Helsinki is not indicative of any particular affinity that Trump has with Putin.

Kena Betancur / Getty Images

"He did it with Kim," she said, referring to Trump's summit with the North Korean leader. "He did it with other leaders.He did it with President Xi from China and it's just his way." He felt like he was doing it. he can make the most of them if he goes one-on-one like that.It's his style.It's like that he does it ,? Trump's next meeting with Putin will be very different, predicts Haley.

"You'll see that their next meetings will have people, the working groups will come together, all these things. But he has always thought just to create this authentic reality of the two by speaking, he feels that he needs to face it face to face. "

Although concerns over Trump's apparent affection for Putin precede his inauguration as president, Haley has repeatedly been one of the harshest officials in the administration. Russia went to the record in the early months of administration to quell Trump's fears, saying that Moscow was "trying" to meddle in the US elections and that Trump had given him his license to "beat the Russia "whenever necessary" She admitted that her views were sometimes contradictory to those of the president, but she said that she had her grievances behind the scenes

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"I can tell you that I met the president this morning for an hour", has she said. "There are certain things that are not. he liked what I said and some things that he may not have liked what I said. But he asked me what I thought and told him the truth, but I told him privately. "

" What I think is, whether it is the president sitting with Kim or the president sits down with Putin. are things that must happen, "added Haley." You can not get to the end of the other side if you do not have those conversations. "

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