Day 181: Trump Spurned Allies to Have Long Private Chat With Putin

Considering no other American was privy to the meeting, the contents of the conversation will likely never be truly known.

At the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany earlier this month, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin broke off from the group during dinner and chatted alone for an hour, according to The New York Times. The only other person at this previously undisclosed meeting was a Kremlin-provided translator.

Other leaders gawked as Trump wandered over to Putin and gave him special attention, despite some of the U.S.’s staunchest allies being in attendance. Attendees were confused about Trump’s actions, which the White House has characterized as mere pleasantries and small talk.

Trump has denied any nefariousness related to the meeting in broad strokes.

The allegation isn’t that he had a private dinner with Putin, it’s that he broke off from a larger dinner with important allies to have a private conversation with the Russian leader that was then hidden for the past two weeks. That’s something he doesn’t deny.

The lack of an American translator, note-taker, foreign policy aide or literally any other American in any capacity in attendance for the chat means that no one will ever truly know what was said during that meeting. The White House’s characterization of the conversation can’t be independently verified by anyone.

Immediately after the meeting, Trump boarded Air Force One to return to the U.S. On the plane, he helped draft a statement regarding his son’s meeting with Russian nationals who supposedly had compromising information about Hillary Clinton.

181 days in, 1281 to go

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