Trump defends dinner talk
President says his discussion with Putin not a secret
Donald Trump has lashed out at reports of his previously undisclosed encounter with Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit this month, describing them as “sick”.
The United States and Russian leaders were in Germany for the summit, and came face-to-face for the first time at a two-hour meeting on July 7 — which was reported at the time.
It emerged yesterday that the pair had a second discussion, lasting about an hour, during a dinner for the G20 heads of state and their spouses in Hamburg. The pair were joined only by Putin’s translator.
“Fake News story of secret dinner with Putin is ‘ sick’. All G 20 leaders, and spouses, were invited by the Chancellor of Germany. Press knew!” Trump tweeted.
“The Fake News is becoming more and more dishonest! Even a dinner arranged for top 20 leaders in Germany is made to look sinister!”
It was not clear what was said during the meeting, which lasted for roughly an hour, said Ian Bremmer, the president of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, who was first to report on the encounter in a note to clients.
That Trump was not joined in the conversation by his own translator raised eyebrows among other leaders at the dinner, said Bremmer, who called it a “breach of national security protocol”.
A White House official told Reuters the pair had “just a brief conversation”, not a “second meeting”.
The two men used Putin’s Russian translator for their chat because the American translator did not speak Russian, the official said.
Bremmer said the US President got up from his seat halfway through dinner and spent about an hour talking “privately and animatedly” with Putin.
Television coverage of the dinner showed that First Lady Melania Trump was seated next to Putin.
Bremmer told the Washington Post that he was told of the discussions by two participants who witnessed it at the dinner, which was attended only by leaders attending the summit and some of their spouses. Leaders who reported the meeting him, Bremmer said, were to “bemused, nonplussed , befuddled” by the animated conversation, held in full view — but not listening distance — of others present.
The undisclosed meeting will add to concerns about transparency from a White House that has bridled at press scrutiny — now all but abandoning the tradition of daily on-camera press briefings, and chafing against the traditional “pool” of reporters following the President around.
Furthermore, the timing is deeply embarrassing for the White House as it struggles to deal with allegations of Russian meddling in the election, and secret meetings between the Trump campaign and Kremlin-linked figures.
Last week was dominated by news of a meeting in June last year between Donald Trump Jnr, the Presi- dent’s oldest son, and a series of Russians including a Kremlin-linked lawyer; a former Soviet spy; a translator previously investigated for money laundering; and a second Russian translator.
Trump Jnr, aided by the White House, attempted to put a lid on the meeting, dismissing it as “a nothing burger”.
But his series of vague statements describing the meeting only served to intrigue America further, and led to a week-long series of revelations which infuriated even Trump’s Republican supporters. The President has continued to deny any collusion with Russia, and insists that the US will benefit if he can forge a friendship with Putin.