Trump lowers expectations for Putin talks
HELSINKI — President Trump arrived in Finland on Sunday for a closely watched one-onone summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, hours after telling an interviewer that he was going into the meeting on Monday with “low expectations.”
On the way to meet with a leader who has cracked down on the press in his country, Trump tweeted that the U.S. news media is the “enemy of the people” and complained that “No matter how well I do at the Summit” he’ll face “criticism that it wasn’t good enough.”
Trump also said in an interview that he had given no thought to asking Putin to extradite the dozen Russian military intelligence officers indicted Friday on charges related to the hacking of Democratic targets in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
But after being given the idea by his interviewer, Trump said “certainly I’ll be asking about it” although extradition is highly unlikely. The U.S. doesn’t have an extradition treaty with Moscow and can’t force the Russians to hand over citizens.
Trump flew to Finland, the final stop on a weeklong trip that began last Tuesday, from Scotland. He and his wife, Melania, spent the weekend at a golf resort Trump owns in Turnberry.
Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, said it would be “pretty silly” for Trump to ask Putin to hand over the indicted Russians.
“For the president to demand something that isn’t going to happen puts the president in a weak position, and I think the president has made it very clear he intends to approach this discussion from a position of strength,” Bolton said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Trump told CBS News that he’s going into the Helsinki summit with “low expectations. I’m not going with high expectations.” He declined to discuss his goals, but said such sessions are beneficial and cited his historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Nothing bad is going to come out of it (Helsinki), and maybe some good will come out,” Trump said.
Trump sat for the interview Saturday in Scotland and CBS News released excerpts on Sunday, hours before Trump flew to Helsinki. From aboard Air Force One, Trump called the U.S. news media “the enemy of the people” and complained that he’ll face criticism regardless of the summit outcome.