Trump girds for summit with Putin
thousands who came out in Scotland and England in opposition to the U.S. president’s visit to the United Kingdom.
Some 10,000 people marched Saturday through the Scottish capital of Edinburgh, while police searched for a paraglider who breached a no-fly zone and flewa protest banner over the resort in western Scotland where Mr. Trump and his wife, Melania, are staying throughtoday.
The glider carried a banner that said “Trump: Well Below Par” over the resort Friday night to protest his environmental and immigration policies.
In Edinburgh, anti-fascist groups and political activists joined those who said they’d never protested before, weaving through the capital’s streets waving an array of makeshift anti-Trump banners. A choir, a bagpiper, a tambourine band and poetry readings added to the carnival spirit.
“Donald Trump is not welcome here,” Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard told the crowd. “The horrific scenes at the Mexican border are just the latest example of his repudiation of decent humanvalues.”
Protesters also launched a 20-foot-tall blimp depicting Mr. Trump as an angry baby that had flown over antiTrump protests in London on Friday.
Mr. Trump has spent the week-long trip wreaking havoc in Europe, first at a NATO summit in Brussels where he questioned the value of the decades-old alliance, and later in Britain, where he faced fallout from a stunning newspaper interview in which he criticized British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plan. This comes at an especially vulnerabletime for the prime minister, whose Conservative Party is divided over how to leave the European Union.
But Mr. Trump also was keeping tabs on domestic issues, including the investigations into Russian election meddling.
In Saturday’s tweets, Mr. Trump tried to blame former President Barack Obama for failing to stop the Russians from working to help him winthe 2016 election.
“The stories you heard about the 12 Russians yesterday took place during the Obama Administration, not the Trump Administration,” Mr. Trump tweeted, asking why they didn’t “do something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September, before the Election?”
It was Mr. Trump’ s first response to indictments announced Friday in 12 Russian military intelligence officers who allegedly hacked into the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump’s Democratic rival, and the Democratic Party, and released tens of thousands of emails ina sweeping conspiracy to help Mr.Trump.
Mr. Trump denies that he or any campaign aid es were involved with the Russian campaign and repeatedly dismisses the ongoing investigation that produced Friday’ s indictment sasa“w itch hunt .” Mr.Trump told reporter she plans to raise election meddling with Mr. Putin, but said he doesn’t expect Mr. Putin to ever accept blame.
“I will absolutely bring that up. I don’t think you’ll have any ‘Gee, I did it. I did it. You got me,’” Mr. Trump said Friday, referring to Mr. Putin.
Leading Democratic senators asked Mr. Trump in a letter Saturday to scrap the summit if he was not prepared “to make Russia’s attack on our election the top issue you will discuss.” And John McCain, a leading Republican senator and Trump critic, said Mr. TrumpmustholdMr.Putinaccountable or not proceed with themeeting.
ButMr.Trump’schiefdiplomat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, told journalists travelingwith him that he was confident the meeting would “put Americainabetterplace.”
Mr. Trump’s tweets also targeted CNN, mocking the American cable channel’s president, Jeff Zucker, as “LittleJeffZ”andknockingitselection coverage following the president’s spat with a CNN correspondent at a news conferenceFridayinEngland.
“So funny! I just checked out Fake News CNN, for the first time in a long time (they are dying in the ratings), to see if they covered my takedown yesterday of Jim Acosta (actually a nice guy). They didn’t!” Mr. Acosta had objected to Trump dismissing the news outlet as “fake news.”
In fact, CNN reported on the exchange of words and interviewed Mr. Acosta on air about what happened. Mr. Acosta also replied to Mr. Trump on Twitter.
“Takedown? I don’t think so. Perhaps we should even the playing field next time and you can take my question. (You’re right about one thing.. I am a nice guy),” Mr. Acosta said Saturday.