Donald Trump news latest – Ex-President slams Biden over Putin summit saying it was a 'good day for Russia'
FORMER President Donald Trump slammed Joe Biden for his performance meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in this week's summit.
Appearing on Fox News's Hannity show, Trump said Biden made it a "good day for Russia."
“I guess overall we didn’t get anything, we gave a very big stage to Russia and we got nothing.”
It was “performance art,” Trump said, adding, “I don’t see what we got out of it.”
Earlier, Trump announced he would be holding a rally in Cleveland, Ohio on June 26. He won the state by 8 points in the 2020 election and is expected to throw his support behind several 2022 midterm candidates.
Read our Donald Trump live blog below for the latest updates…
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
BIDEN SAYS PUTIN IS 'A KILLER'
Joe Biden previously said that he believes Putin is a "killer," something that the Russian president denied ever speaking to the American about.
When asked back in March if Biden believes Putin is a killer in an interview with ABC, the president replied: "Mmm hmm, I do."
During today's press conference, Biden began to laugh when he was told that Putin denied having the conversation which led him to believe that.
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
PUTIN PUSHES BACK AGAINST CYBERATTACK ACCUSATIONS
Biden has blacklisted six Russian technology companies for "carrying out Russian government-directed attempts to influence the 2020 US presidential election, and other acts of disinformation and interference."
However, Putin called for the US and Russia to work together to fight cyberattacks, saying: "It is our great hope that we will be able to set up this process with our US partners."
Putin has now spoken out about election meddling allegations, claiming they are "farcical" and demanding proof.
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
TRUMP AND PUTIN HAD A 'BROMANCE'
Trump and Putin were accused of having a "bromance" after it was claimed they spoke on the phone five times in just over three weeks.
Their "friendship" was said to have blossomed at the G20 conference in Japan when Trump complained about press freedom to Putin.
He even used the term “fake news” despite it being widely accepted by US spooks that Moscow spread false reports online in a bid to influence the 2016 US election.
And just last week Trump said he would trust Russia over "sleezebags" and "lowlifes" in the US intelligence agencies.
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
PUTIN ARRIVED IN 'FLYING KREMLIN' LUXURY PLANE
Putin touched down in Switzerland for crunch talks with Joe Biden in a luxury £390m 'Flying Kremlin' jet.
Among the luxurious trappings on board the official Ilyushin plane are a fully-stocked bar, bedrooms and a gym.
The interior decor has a neoclassical style and the huge conference table is gold trimmed and surrounded by cream leather seats.
Putin is reported to have clocked up more air miles in high office than all other Russian leaders put together.
His amazing jet is capable of hitting speeds of up to 560mph and was made by the Voronezh Aircraft Production Association.
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
BIDEN TOOK 'CHEAT SHEET' TO PUTIN MEETING
The US President could be seen holding a white sheet of paper in his hand, appearing to hide it from Putin's gaze.
Biden was sat cross-legged, while Putin had a wide stance with his hands on his knees.
As the pair continued to speak with officials around them, Biden could be seen placing the sheet into the inside pocket of his blazer.
It is unclear what was contained on the sheet, but the president has been known to hold a list of reporter's names and even facts for discussion topics at press conferences.
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
BIDEN ARRIVED AT THE MEETING AFTER PUTIN
Biden arrived second for the start of the meeting at around noon, and decision to give a press conference second is likely again to be carefully planned out optics – allowing him to have the last word.
US officials opted to not let the two presidents share a stage as Putin and Trump did back in 2018.
It is believed to have been a signal of the new firmer stance towards Russia, but some of Biden's critics said the decision not to face-off with Putin made him look "weak".
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
HOW DOES BIDEN FEEL ABOUT PUTIN?
Biden has been highly sceptical of the Russian leader for more than 20 years – and previously slammed former US President George W. Bush for claiming Putin is “trustworthy".
One former US official told Politico ahead of this week’s meeting that there is “nothing Putin can do to make [the president] like him.”
“Biden sees Putin as someone who is rational, thuggish — someone who is not confined by any sense of morality or concern over human rights or anything of that nature … just a cold, hard realistic assessment of the man," they said.
The pair have met previously, ten years ago when Biden was vice president.
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
WHO INTRODUCED THE TWO PRESIDENTS?
Putin and Biden were introduced to each other by Swiss president Guy Parmelin ahead of the meeting which was expected to set Russia and the US's volatile relationship for years to come.
Joe extended his hand first, which was then grasped by Putin – who appeared to flash a sinister looking grin at the awaiting photographers.
"Mr President, I’d like to thank you for your initiative to meet today," Putin said, adding he knew Biden "had a long trip and lots of work".
Biden said: "It is always better to meet face to face."
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
PUTIN SAYS THERE IS NO HOSTILITY WITH BIDEN
Putin insisted there was "no hostility" with Biden and revealed the US President even talked about his family.
Biden however did not invite him to the White House, with Putin saying their relationship is not at their level.
"It certainly doesn't imply that we must look into each other's eyes and find a soul or swear our affection but essentially our talks were pragmatic," Putin said.
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
PUTIN DISMISSES CYBERATTACK ALLEGATIONS
In an NBC interview on Monday, Putin sharply dismissed the cyberattack allegations against the US as baseless.
"Where is the evidence? Where is proof? It’s becoming farcical," Putin said.
"We have been accused of all kinds of things — election interference, cyberattacks and so on and so forth — and not once, not once, not one time, did they bother to produce any kind of evidence or proof, just unfounded accusations."
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
BIDEN TELLS PUTIN TO END CYBERATTACKS
Biden told reporters that 16 types of critical infrastructure should be off-limits to cyberattacks, “period.” He said that includes the energy and water sector.
It comes after a ransomware attack in May on one of the largest pipeline operators in the US forced the shutdown of fuel supplies to much of the East Coast for nearly a week. That attack is blamed on a Russian criminal gang.
Russia has not cooperated with criminal investigations of ransomware and does not extradite suspects to the US.
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
PUTIN PRAISES TRUMP IN NEW INTERVIEW
Putin offered fond words for former President Donald Trump, who was accused throughout his four-year term of cozying up to the Russian leader.
"Mr. Trump is an extraordinary individual, talented individual. Otherwise, he would not have become US president," Putin said. "He is a colorful individual."
However, Putin added that there's a need for "predictability and stability" in Russia's relations with the United States.
"This is something we haven't seen in recent years," he said.
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
PUTIN CALLED BIDEN 'UGLY' IN INTERVIEW
Putin sat down with NBC this week, marking his first interview with American media in three years.
The Russian deflected recent criticism leveled against him by Biden, insisting: "Don't be mad at the mirror if you are ugly."
Putin also accused the US of "targeting its citizens over their political opinions", pointing to the arrests of January 6th rioters.
"We have a saying: 'Don't be mad at the mirror if you are ugly,'" he said.
"It has nothing to do with you personally. But if somebody blames us for something, what I say is, why don't you look at yourselves? You will see yourselves in the mirror, not us."
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
BIDEN BLASTS TRUMP'S 'PHONY POPULISM'
The President was asked what he's been telling world leaders who fear the "continued hold" Trump has over the Republican Party in the aftermath of the January 6 riots.
"It is a shock and a surprise that what’s happened in terms of the consequences of President Trump’s phony populism has happened," Biden said.
"And it is disappointing that so many of my Republican colleagues in the Senate, who I know know better, have been reluctant to take on, for example, an investigation [into the January 6 insurrection], because they are worried about being primaried."
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
BIDEN ACCIDENTALLY CALLED PUTIN TRUMP
Biden mistook the Russian President for the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, as he delved into what was discussed at the long-awaited summit at a press conference.
He then quickly corrected himself, before continuing to speak about his discussions during the four-hour-long meeting.
"I caught part of President Trump's … eh Putin's … press conference," Biden said.
"He talked about the need for us to have some kind of modus operandi where we dealt with making sure that the Arctic was, in fact, a free zone," Biden said, continuing on from the blunder.
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
GOP PUSH TO MAKE BIDEN 'ONE-TERM PRESIDENT'
McConnell last month, declared that he was "100 percent" focused on "stopping" this administration.
He said: "We're confronted with severe challenges from a new administration and a narrow majority of Democrats in the House and a 50-50 Senate to turn America into a socialist country."
The Kentucky senator said "that's 100 percent of my focus."
- Catherina Gioino
TRUMP WISHES BIDEN WELL
"His age is the problem and I want him to do well."
"I want him to go out and do well. I think the election was unbelievably unfair but I want this guy to go out and do well for our country."
"I don't want to see a scene like that I watched that yesterday."
"I thought it was terrible. That was terrible what was happening."
- Catherina Gioino
TRUMP SAID CHINA NEEDS TO PAY FOR THE CORONAVIRUS
When asked if he wants China to pay $10 trillion to the US, Trump said it's even larger.
"Well, the number is much higher than that but there's only so much they can pay and that's to us."
"To the world, the number is bigger, throughout the world."
"Look at countries that have been destroyed over what they did, and whether by accident or not, and I would hope that it was accident."
"I hope that it was through incompetence or an accident."
- Catherina Gioino
TRUMP BELIEVES COVID WAS A "TERRIBLE ACCIDENT"
The former president told Hannity that he believes the coronavirus was a terrible accident.
"You see that the horrible bad, horrible thing that came at us from China, and came at us from the Wuhan lab."
"It changed my whole line of thinking and I really hope and I believe it was an accident."
"It was incompetence. I guess some people don't necessarily agree with that."
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
HILLARY CLINTON SAYS TRUMP IS 'DOING PUTIN'S WORK'
During an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning, Clinton slammed Trump, noting that "we never thought we had to worry about domestic enemies" before the previous president.
"The problem is that Trump has elevated him," she claimed. "Trump, from the very beginning, even when he was running in 2016, lifted up Russia.
"So it's difficult to say let's turn the clock back and go from where I thought we were when I left being secretary of State.
"I never thought I would see some of what we saw during the four years of the Trump administration."
- Catherina Gioino
TRUMP WOULD HAVE LOVED TO TAKE OFF RUSSIA'S SANCTIONS
Trump said he was the best person to deal with Russia as president.
"I got along really well with him, nobody was tougher on Russia, he [Putin] would say that."
"And I would I was loving the idea of taking them [sanctions] off," he said.
"I would have loved to have taken them off as soon as they got their act together. I think we had a great shot at having an unbelievable relationship with Russia."
"It could have been fantastic. It could have been really beneficial to both countries you know they need economics."
- Catherina Gioino
TRUMP CLAIMS HE DIDN'T GET INVOLVED IN THE DOJ INVESTIGATION INTO HIS INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS
Trump claimed on Hannity that he didn't get involved into the DOJ probe into his international affairs, namely with his connections in Russia and Ukraine.
"Literally from the day of that wonderful ride down the escalator, from that moment on, investigation after investigation," he said.
"The DOJ didn't do anything about it. I guess they felt they wanted to be soft."
"I left that up to DOJ, I left that up to the people running DOJ, and I wasn't involved, I would say that probably maybe less involved than I should have been."
"Maybe I should have been forcing it. But a lot of very guilty people were not in any way prosecuted."
- Catherina Gioino
TRUMP: TODAY "WAS A GOOD DAY FOR RUSSIA"
Former President Donald Trump called today's meeting between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin a "good day for Russia."
"I guess overall we didn't get anything, we gave a very big stage to Russia and we got nothing."
It was "performance art," Trump said, adding "I don't see what we got out of it."
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
PUTIN CALLED FOR US TO WORK WITH RUSSIA ON CYBERATTACKS
Putin called for the US and Russia to work together to fight cyberattacks, saying: "It is our great hope that we will be able to set up this process with our US partners."
Washington has repeatedly accused Russia of interfering in the 2016 and 2020 US elections.
Earlier this year, Biden blacklisted six Russian technology companies for "carrying out Russian government-directed attempts to influence the 2020 US presidential election, and other acts of disinformation and interference."
- Cybele Mayes-Osterman
RUSSIAN AND AMERICAN PLANES FACE OFF
In response to the Russian Navy conducting what officials called its largest exercise in the Pacific Ocean since the end of the Cold War, US defense officials said that on Sunday said that USAF F-22s were dispatched to meet Russian bombers near Hawaii.
Russia's exercise, which took place about 300-500 miles west of Hawaiian shores, includes surface ships, anti-submarine aircraft, and long-range bombers.
The US sent the fighter jets to respond to the bomber flights, but the bombers didn't enter the Air Defense Identification Zone and were not intercepted.
US officials also said a US carrier strike group headed by the USS Vinson was operating about 200 miles east of Hawaii.
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