Trump congratulates Putin on re-election, but fails to mention meddling in us

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March 21, 2018 2:58 AM

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump called Tuesday to congratulate President Vladimir Putin of Russia on his re-election, but did not raise with him the lopsided nature of his victory...

Instead, Trump kept the focus of the call on what the White House said were “shared interests” — among them, North Korea and Ukraine — overruling his national security advisers, who had urged him to raise Russia’s recent behavior.

“We had a very good call,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, where he had just welcomed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. “We will probably be meeting in the not-too-distant future.”

The president’s upbeat characterization came five days after his administration imposed sanctions on Russia for its interference in the election and for other “malicious cyberattacks,” the most significant action it has taken against Moscow since Trump took office. The United States also joined Britain, France and Germany in denouncing the Russian government for violating international law for the attack on the spy, Sergei V. Skripal, and his daughter Yulia.

Both actions highlighted a contradiction at the heart of the Trump presidency: the administration’s steadily tougher stance toward Russia and Trump’s own stubborn reluctance to criticize Putin.

Trump, a senior official said, signed off on the sanctions and the harsh language in the administration’s statements. But he was determined not to antagonize Putin, this person said, because he believes his leader-to-leader rapport is the only way to improve relations between the two countries.

That strategy has put Trump at odds with his own advisers: In preparing the president for the call, aides advised him to raise the nerve-agent attack and wrote on his briefing materials, “DO NOT CONGRATULATE.” The Washington Post first reported these details.

A second official, however, said that while Trump’s briefing cards did contain those suggestions, he spoke to his aides by phone and never saw the cards.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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