Trump’s planned White House meeting with Putin pushed back to next year
ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Donald Trump shakes hand with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of the press conference after their meeting in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16. A planned Washington meeting between the two leaders has been pushed back from this fall to 2019, the White House said today.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with European Commission leader Jean-Claude Juncker in the Oval Office of the White House, today in Washington. Trump’s proposed Washington meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin has been delayed until 2019.
WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump’s proposed Washington meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin has been delayed until 2019.
National security adviser John Bolton, in a statement today, cites special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as the reason for the delay.
“The president believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so we’ve agreed that it will be after the first of the year,” Bolton said.
The White House said last week that Trump had directed Bolton to invite Putin to Washington for a meeting in the fall. This came amid the backlash over Trump’s performance at a news conference with Putin following their Helsinki summit, and many members of Congress had objected to them meeting again in the fall.
