‘Surrender summit’: America furious at Trump’s ‘shameful’ siding with Russia over election meddling
A POWERFUL newspaper front page has captured the horrified reactions of political leaders to Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin.
THE New York Daily News has released a powerful front page following the meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
The cover sees the US and Russian leaders holding hands on Fifth Avenue, with Mr Trump shooting Uncle Sam.
It appears to be a reference to Mr Trump’s infamous 2016 quote that he could stand on New York’s Fifth Avenue “and shoot somebody”, and still not lose voters.
It follows a heavy backlash against the president in the wake of the Helsinki summit.
Horrified political leaders in the United States have accused him of siding with Russia over his own country after an extraordinary joint press conference with Vladimir Putin.
The two presidents spoke and took questions for 46 minutes overnight after spending an afternoon together at the Finland summit, where they both pledged to act on a number of serious issues confronting the world.
But one topic dominated the fallout — the allegations that Russia interfered in America’s 2016 presidential election.
Mr Putin dismissed the claims as “nonsense”. Mr Trump appeared to accept the Russian president’s “strong and powerful” denials over the unambiguous conclusions of his own intelligence agencies.
Mr Trump also appeared to blame the US, rather than Russia, for the strained relations between the two nations.
WHAT TRUMP SAID
Russia’s invasion of Crimea, support for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, meddling in foreign elections and bleak human rights record have contributed to broad international condemnation in recent years, culminating in it being booted out of the G8.
But Mr Trump blamed the controversy over the 2016 election, rather than Russia’s conduct, for souring relations between the two nuclear powers.
“It was a clean campaign, I beat Hillary Clinton easily and frankly ... we won that race and it’s a shame there could be a little cloud over it,” he said.
Mr Trump said he and Mr Putin had spent a “great deal of time” talking about the issue and Mr Putin was “strong and powerful in his denials”.
“All I can do is ask the question,” he added.
“There was no collusion. I didn’t know the president. There was no one to collude with.
“We ran a brilliant campaign and that’s why I’m President.”
Mr Putin insisted his country had “never interfered, and does not plan to interfere in internal American electoral process”.
Mr Trump was asked by an American journalist whom he believed — US intelligence or Mr Putin — and admitted his own director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, had told him it was Russia.
“My people come to me, Dan Coats came to me, some others, they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin, he just said to me it’s not Russia. I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be,” Mr Trump said.
READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT OF THE JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE
THE BACKLASH
US politicians and commentators were appalled by their president’s performance in what CNN’s John King labelled the “Surrender Summit”.
Republican senator and former presidential nominee John McCain called Mr Trump’s joint press conference with Mr Putin “a recent low point in the history of the American presidency”.
“Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naivete, egotism, false equivalence and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate,” Mr McCain said, calling the summit a “tragic mistake”.
“President Trump proved not only unable, but unwilling to stand up to Putin. He and Putin seemed to be speaking from the same script as the president made a conscious choice to defend a tyrant against the fair questions of a free press, and to grant Putin an uncontested platform to spew propaganda and lies to the world.
“It is tempting to describe the press conference as a pathetic rout — as an illustration of the perils of under-preparation and inexperience. But these were not the errant tweets of a novice politician. These were the deliberate choices of a president who seems determined to realise his delusions of a warm relationship with Putin’s regime, without any regard for the true nature of his rule.
“No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.”
Former US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, a Republican, said Mr Trump had “failed America,” saying it was a sad day for the nation, and “a sad day for the world.”
Arizona senator Jeff Flake said Mr Trump taking Russia’s side over his intelligence agency was “shameful” while former CIA director John O’Brennan called it “treasonous”, as the hashtag #treasonsummit began circulating.
I never thought I would see the day when our American President would stand on the stage with the Russian President and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression. This is shameful.
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) July 16, 2018
Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of “high crimes & misdemeanors.†It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???
— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) July 16, 2018
Once again, @realDonaldTrump takes to the international stage to embarrass America, undermine our institutions, weaken our alliances, & embrace a dictator. Russia interfered in our elections & attacked our democracy. Putin must be held accountable – not rewarded. Disgraceful.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) July 16, 2018
Trump wasted this opportunity, undermined his own intelligence community, and disgraced the office of the Presidency. Putin got everything he could have wanted from this meeting, while the U.S. got nothing. The #Helsinki Humiliation is a national embarrassment.
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) July 16, 2018
Putin must have copy of the pee tape
— Mia Farrow (@MiaFarrow) July 16, 2018
The #GOPTraitors will do nothing! I repeat nothing! To combat the attack on our country. #TreasonSummit
— Candis Cayne (@candiscayne) July 16, 2018
The denials over the election meddling come just days after an indictment by US special counsel Robert Mueller against 12 Russian officers accused of hacking computers belonging to the Democrats.
Mr Putin said he and Mr Trump had spoken about the possibility of investigators from Mr Mueller’s team visiting Russia to conduct interviews. But he warned if that was going to happen, the US would have to allow Russia to do the same.
Both men laughed when asked if Russia held any compromising material about Mr Trump or any member of his family.
“Yes, I did hear those rumours that we collected compromising material on Mr Trump when he visited Moscow,” said Mr Putin. “I didn’t even know he was in Moscow.”
He went on to say it was hard to “imagine an utter nonsense on a bigger scale than this so please disregard those issues and don’t think about it anymore.”
The US President smiled awkwardly, shaking his head and looking down at the lectern in front of him. He said that if such material existed, it would have been “out a long time ago”.
Breaking news: Trump has taken on a new job: spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.
— Gerry Connolly (@GerryConnolly) July 16, 2018
The duplicitous event we just saw is nothing less than a sell-out to a dictator. Standing next to Putin, Trump attacked a free press, our intelligence services, & Democrats. It is a low moment in US history. At long last, will any members of @HouseGOP show decency & speak up?
— Bill Pascrell, Jr. (@BillPascrell) July 16, 2018
This entire trip has just been one giant middle finger from President Trump to his own country. Just jaw dropping. https://t.co/pH2GzgpALJ
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) July 16, 2018
Donald Trump’s performance at his summit with Putin today was the most astonishing display of weakness and submission that I have ever seen from an American President. pic.twitter.com/Y8R7oN5fV2
— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) July 16, 2018
Donald Trump sells out America
— US Rep Brendan Boyle (@RepBrendanBoyle) July 16, 2018
‘A BRIGHTER FUTURE’
Mr Putin was asked why he should be trusted, and responded by saying no one should be trusted, suggesting he didn’t trust Mr Trump.
“As to who is to be believed and who is not to be, you can trust no one,” he said. “Where did you get this idea that President Trump trusts me or I trust him?”
He said he would be guided only by “facts” and labelled the claims “nonsense”.
Asked if he wanted Mr Trump to win, he answered: “Yes, I wanted him to win because he talked about normalising Russian-American relations.”
Mr Trump said the relationship between the two countries was at the lowest point in years until the start of their summit when they met face-to-face. “That changed about four hours ago”.
But he stopped short of blaming Russia, repeatedly saying both countries were responsible: “We have both made mistakes.”
As Mr Putin watched, Mr Trump said he was confident US-Russia relations would improve. “We have taken the first steps towards a brighter future — and one with a strong dialogue, and a lot of thought,” he said.
He said he would not try to appease partisan critics by avoiding his counterpart, calling Mr Putin “a good competitor”.
As I said today and many times before, “I have GREAT confidence in MY intelligence people.†However, I also recognize that in order to build a brighter future, we cannot exclusively focus on the past – as the world’s two largest nuclear powers, we must get along! #HELSINKI2018
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2018
I would rather take a political risk in pursuit of peace, than to risk peace in pursuit of politics. #HELSINKI2018 pic.twitter.com/XdlrJWLPIh
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2018
A productive dialogue is not only good for the United States and good for Russia, but it is good for the world. #HELSINKI2018 pic.twitter.com/Q2Y1PhM9au
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2018
THE SUMMIT
The leaders earlier sat down in front of the world’s media for brief comments and a handshake before they met alone and joined top aides for a working lunch.
Mr Putin said they had already spoken several times but it was time to address relations between their countries, which would include some difficult multi-national issues.
“It is now time to talk in depth about our bilateral ties and sore points in the world — there are quite a lot of them for us to start paying attention,” Mr Putin said.
Mr Trump called it a “great opportunity” for the countries, adding that he had raised the deterioration in relations during his campaign for the presidency because “getting along with Russia is a good thing”.
A Kremlin spokesman said the situation between the two countries was “critical”.
Earlier, Mr Trump took to Twitter to lay the blame for the rocky relationship with Russia not with Moscow, but with Washington.
“Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now the Rigged Witch Hunt,” he said referring to US special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s probe into alleged Russian meddling into US elections.
In another tweet, he said he was looking forward to meeting Mr Putin and complained he would not get enough credit if the summit was a success.
“Unfortunately, no matter how well I do at the Summit, if I was given the great city of Moscow as retribution for all the sins and evils committed by Russia over the years I would return to criticism that it wasn’t good enough,” he said.
Mr Putin touched down in the Finnish capital just after 1pm on Monday local time, the time he had been due to meet the summit host Sauli Niinisto, the president of Finland, at the Presidential Palace.
He took his dark jacket off after leaving his plane and gave a quick wave to onlookers before getting into a vehicle that was part of a 23-car motorcade.
Streets in central Helsinki were closed for the summit, with Mr Putin arriving at the palace in his armoured car to be greeted by Mr Niinisto. Mr Trump and First Lady Melania Trump reached the palace about half an hour later in a Cadillac dubbed “The Beast”, as part of a 34-car motorcade.
Mr Trump reportedly did not want to leave his hotel until Mr Putin had arrived. The Trumps were driven into the same security marquee as the Russians, and a curtain quickly pulled closed behind them.
Mr and Mrs Trump flew into the capital of Finland last night and were met at the Presidential Palace by Mr Niinisto.
Mrs Trump was handed a bouquet of flowers as she and Mr Trump were shown through the palace and stood with Mr Niinisto and his wife Jenni Haukio on a balcony in the bright sunshine as they inspected the palace gardens.
In brief remarks before their bilateral meeting, Mr Trump thanked Mr Niinisto for his hospitality and told him how thrilled he was to be in Finland.
He insisted the NATO meeting in Belgium — where he accused other leaders of not pulling their weight with defence spending — had been “very successful”, insisting “NATO has never been more successful”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Pekovic told state-backed network RT there were obvious similarities between the two presidents.
“Any head of state, when talking to their foreign counterparts, has to take care of the interests of their state. And our president is quite pragmatic, quite consistent, quite practical,” Mr Pekovic said. “He always says that he cares about the national interests of Russia, above anything else. That’s why he understands the reciprocal beliefs of Donald Trump, as applied to his country.”
The spokesman told the station — which is considered a mouthpiece for the Russian government — there still needed to be co-operation between countries.
“This is what we hope to achieve at this summit. We hope this will be a baby step towards overcoming the current critical situation in our bilateral relations,” he said.
Mr Pekovic welcomed Mr Trump’s statements that he viewed Mr Putin as a competitor. “But there is a but — competition has to be fair. We need fair competition in politics, in the economy. This helps all the global processes develop.”
He sought to play down fears the US and Russia would make deals to the detriment of Europe.
Mr Trump blasted European leaders this week for not contributing enough to NATO and Mr Putin has been treated as an outcast since the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and most recently the Novichok nerve agent attack in the UK.
“Common sense tells us that countries of the world, especially European countries, should be interested in the normalisation of relations between Moscow and Washington,” said Mr Pekovic.
Both leaders were targeted by cheeky messages Finland’s newspaper largest newspaper has erected around the city. Helsingin Sanomat posted 300 billboards written in English and Russia that highlighted the “turbulent relations with the media” both leaders had.
“Mr President welcome to the land of the free press” a huge billboard at Helsinki airport read.
It was a message that neither president would have been able to miss.
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