President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived in Helsinki late Sunday night for his long-awaited summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the Financial Times. And though the two leaders have met before, Monday’s summit will mark the first sit down meeting between the two leaders since Trump’s inauguration. In an interview that aired yesterday, Trump cautioned that he has “low expectations” going into the summit, because no matter what he accomplishes, the media and Trump’s political opponents will treat him like it wasn’t enough.
Trump said Friday during his press conference with UK Prime Minister Theresa May that he expects to discuss Syria, Ukraine and terrorism with Putin. He said later that he would consider asking Putin about the possibility of extraditing the more than two dozen Russians who have now been indicted by the DOJ over allegations of interference in the 2016 election.
Just hours before meeting with Putin, Trump blamed former President Barack Obama for the so-called Russian interference during the election because Obama knew about the interference but chose to do nothing, and slammed his political opponents for allowing the US’s relationship with Russia to deteriorate to a point where it “has never been worse.”
President Obama thought that Crooked Hillary was going to win the election, so when he was informed by the FBI about Russian Meddling, he said it couldn’t happen, was no big deal, & did NOTHING about it. When I won it became a big deal and the Rigged Witch Hunt headed by Strzok!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2018
Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2018
Following Friday’s latest round of indictments against a dozen Russian military intelligence officials, Democratic lawmakers slammed Trump for refusing to cancel the meeting.
And while Trump berated his political opponents for taking advantage of the indictments and their timing to try and foil the long-anticipated meeting between the two world leaders, National Security Advisor John Bolton said on Sunday that the president had been briefed in advance about the indictments of the Russian intelligence agents. According to Reuters, Trump appeared upbeat during a breakfast meeting with Finland’s president before the meeting with Putin in the Finnish capital, even tweeting his thanks to his hosts for their hospitality.
It was an honor to join you this morning. Thank you! https://t.co/NOUTroe8MV
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2018
Shortly before the meeting was set to begin, Putin was filmed getting off his presidential aircraft in Helsinki.
JUST IN: Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin arrives in Helsinki, Finland, ahead of meeting with Pres. Trump. https://t.co/pnM34fHNdQ pic.twitter.com/QwCcMh6OSC
— ABC News (@ABC) July 16, 2018
The Kremlin has said it doesn’t expect an easy meeting after pushing back against President Trump’s criticisms of a planned Russian gas pipeline to Germany, while suggesting it could be difficult to find common ground on Syria thanks to tensions over Iran.
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