Lara Trump: Meet with ‘Vladimir’ a great thing

Donald Trump’s first formal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin could be a “great thing for both countries,” the president’s daughter-in-law said yesterday during an appearance on Boston Herald Radio.

“Establishing a level of respect between the two men, between the two countries, would be a huge win,” Lara Trump, who is married to the president’s son Eric, told “Morning Meeting” hosts Jaclyn Cashman and Tom Shattuck. “I think Vladimir is probably incredibly receptive to my father-in-law. I think he’s looking forward to this as much as my father-in-law is, and this could be a great thing for both countries.”

President Trump is set to meet privately with Putin today during the G-20 Summit in Germany.

The meeting is the first formal bilateral meeting between the Russian leader and any American president in nearly two years, amid ongoing tensions over Russia’s annexation of Crimea, its backing of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and its efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.

“Who wouldn’t want the United States to get along with Russia? Why would we want it to go the other way?” Lara Trump said. “A face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin would be great for the United States, whoever the president might be at the time.”

She added: “I think it can be very positive, and listen, to have a country like Russia, to have Vladimir Putin, I mean, I don’t know that you’ll ever get him 100 percent on Team America here, but to have an understanding between the countries, to have a mutual respect, I think that can only be positive. I think that’s all my father-in-law has said from the very beginning: This is a very powerful man who runs a very powerful country and we can either have them as a friend or as a foe, and why wouldn’t we want to try to make them more of a friend?”

President Trump is reportedly not planning to bring up Russia’s attempts to influence last year’s presidential election, a controversy that has become the subject of a special counsel investigation as well as several intelligence and congressional probes.

Asked yesterday at a press conference in Poland whether he is convinced Russia was responsible for interference in the 2016 election, the president responded: “I think it was Russia, and it could have been other people in other countries. Nobody really knows. ... Nobody really knows for sure.”

Multiple U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded Russian agents, directed by Putin, were responsible for the meddling.