In France, Trump faces Russia issue
Questions linger on Kremlin’s role in election
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump arrives in Paris today for a hastily planned visit to meet with France’s new president and attend Bastille Day celebrations, his first public appearances after four days that have been dominated by mounting questions over what he knew about Russian efforts to assist his campaign.
Trump has been out of sight since returning Saturday from last week’s Group of 20 summit of world leaders in Germany.
The unusual stretch without a public appearance came as Trump’s administration tried to cope with the most threatening news to date in the long-running Russia probe: the attempt by Donald Trump Jr., his eldest son, to get damaging information last year on Hillary Clinton from a Russian lawyer who was described to him as connected to the Kremlin.
On Wednesday morning, the president tweeted that his son was “open, transparent and innocent” while referring to the investigation as “the greatest Witch Hunt in political history.” The president questioned the sources of the media reporting on the story, even though his son
released four pages of emails in which he communicates with an associate claiming to be arranging a meeting with a Russian government lawyer.
The snowballing revelations about Trump Jr. and the meeting that included senior adviser Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, have broadsided the White House, distracting from its agenda as aides grapple with a crisis involving the president’s family.
Trump’s aides had initially planned to have the president spend much of this week pressing Congress to act on the Republican Party’s imperiled health care initiative.
But after two tweets from the president Monday, the health care push was not evident again until Wednesday, when during a White House interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network’s “The 700 Club,” Trump said he would be “very angry” if congressional Republicans fail to advance a health legislation for his signature.
On Monday, a group of evangelical pastors and religious leaders prayed with Trump in the Oval Office, with some laying their hands on the president, their heads bowed, according to photos posted online.
The moves highlighted the White House’s strategy of solidifying support among evangelical conservatives, a core constituency.
In the interview, Trump spoke for the first time about his lengthy sit-down last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20.
“I think we get along very, very well. We are a tremendously powerful nuclear power, and so are they. It doesn’t make sense not to have some kind of a relationship,” Trump said, pointing to a cease-fire in a small section of Syria that the two leaders negotiated.
Trump also insisted, contrary to the evidence of his son’s emails and the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community, that Putin really would have preferred to see Clinton win the 2016 election.
“Why would he want me?” Trump said, citing his support for more money for the U.S. military and energy production.
Judging from his tweets, Trump has spent much of this week stewing in frustration over media coverage of his son’s meeting.
“I think that the president is, I would say, frustrated with the process of the fact that this continues to be an issue,” White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters. “And he would love for us to be focused on things (like)… the economy, on health care, on tax reform, on infrastructure.”
Trump was invited by French President Emmanuel Macron two weeks ago to see the French national day parade on the city’s grand boulevard, the Champs-Elysees, and mark the 100th anniversary of U.S. troops coming to France’s aid in World War I.
Now, questions about how much Trump knew about the Russian government’s effort to help his campaign will likely overshadow the pomp and circumstance of the trip, which was initially designed to bring together Macron and Trump, surprise winners in recent elections.
Today, Trump will go to the tombs of Emperor Napoleon and France’s WWI commander, Marshal Ferdinand Foch.
It is the first time in more than a quarter-century that a U.S. president has been invited to Bastille Day.
The White House has agreed that Trump, who avoided the press at the G-20 summit, will hold a joint news conference with Macron after the two leaders meet privately to discuss ways to combat terrorism and cooperate on the next steps in Syria.
Macron had hoped the visit would be a chance to showcase his own diplomatic skills, especially with an American president nearly twice his age, and to assert France’s prominence on the world stage.
Macron, 39, is a globalist who believes in European integration and multinational alliances. Trump, 71, espouses an “America first” doctrine that is increasingly isolating his country. Macron was angry when Trump pulled out of the Paris climate accord.