In its never-ending quest to unseat a sitting president of the United States, the Washington Post, the formerly-respected newspaper turned #NeverTrump propaganda arm, today trolled The White House, declaring that staffers for the president ignored his orders to set up a meeting between President Trump and the Russian leader, President Putin.
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Trump’s “interest in a meeting with Putin became public in March after the Kremlin disclosed that Trump extended an invitation in a phone call with the Russian leader. But US officials say Trump privately has been asking his aides for a bilateral meeting ever since he met with Putin in Vietnam in November on the sidelines of a multilateral economic summit…After that meeting, the president said he wanted to invite Putin to the White House,” a US official said as quoted by The Washington Post. “We ignored it,” the official added.
The newspaper also said that “at the time, top aides in the National Security Council opposed the idea of a meeting and said they didn’t view Trump’s interest in a summit as an order to set one up.” “They decided: Let’s wait and see if he raises it again,” said the official.
“The push for engagement with the Kremlin follows months of prodding by Trump, who has faced resistance from senior political aides and diplomats questioning the value of meeting with Putin and worry that the tete-a-tete could cast a shadow over the NATO summit in Brussels.
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“Senior officials at the State Department have acknowledged that a meeting between the two leaders could, in theory, help resolve long-standing differences on Ukraine, Syria, cybersecurity issues and interference in foreign elections. But some of those officials have said a summit between the two leaders is premature given the lack of progress on resolving minor issues, such as the return of Russian dachas on the East Coast, which were seized as punishment for Moscow’s interference in the election,” WaPo wrote.
The Russian state news agency TASS picked up on these comments and reported them to the Russian public.
