As President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin greeted each other in front of the press on Monday, Trump raved about the World Cup and their mutual friend, Chinese President Xi Jinping.
One notable thing not mentioned in Trump’s list of planned discussion points? Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
“We have discussions on everything from trade to military to missiles to nuclear to China, we’ll be talking a little bit about China, our mutual friend President Xi,” he said. “I think we have great opportunities together as two countries because frankly, we have not been getting along well for the last number of years. I have been here not too long, but it’s getting close to two years, but I think we will end up having an extraordinary relationship.”
Just days before Trump was set to meet with Putin Monday, deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced that the Department of Justice had indicted 12 Russian intelligence officials for meddling in the 2016 election. Trump told reporters last week that he plans to ask Putin about the election interference, but lamented there wasn’t much he could do about it besides ask Putin to not do it again.