Trump’s ‘secret’ chat with Putin
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin had a ‘secret’ hour-long meeting at this month’s G20 summit that was overheard only by a Kremlin translator.
The two leaders had met for the first time earlier in the day at the July 7 summit of the world’s most powerful countries in Hamburg.
However, despite spending more than two hours together in bilateral talks, they also had a private chat that evening, it has emerged.
over a banquet with fellow delegates and their spouses that night, Mr Trump left his chair and went to sit next to President Putin, sitting next to US First lady Melania Trump. Witnesses said the meeting lasted roughly an hour, and appeared friendly. Despite the controversy surrounding the Trump administration’s links with Russia, including
allegations of collusion with the Putin regime to meddle in last year’s election, the White House only admitted on Tuesday that the meeting took place.
Some guests reportedly expressed dismay that Mr Trump chose to spend so much time with the leader of an international adversary while ignoring staunch allies at the dinner, who included Theresa May.
‘Pretty much everyone at the dinner thought this was really weird, that here is the President of the United States, who clearly wants to display that he has a better relationship personally with President Putin than any of us, or simply doesn’t care,’ said Ian Bremmer, head of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group.
On Twitter, Mr Trump dismissed reports about a ‘secret’ meeting as ‘fake news’ and ‘sick’. The White House insisted the encounter amounted to no more than ‘pleasantries and small talk’.
The talks they had earlier in the day were followed by a press conference in which their topics of conversation were revealed. But it is not known what they discussed in private.
The US Department of Justice and Congress are investigating alleged collusion between members of the Trump campaign and Russians to interfere in the election.
A largely unverified dossier compiled by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele sensationally claims the Kremlin has compromising information on Mr Trump’s sexual and financial activities in Russia before he became president. Mr Trump has dismissed the report as ‘phony’.