US President Donald Trump and Russian President vladimir putin are finally sitting down for a face-to-face meeting today while the world leaders are in Hamburg together for the G20 summit. This meeting has been hotly anticipated ever since Trump took office back in January after what some believe to be an illegitimate election whose result was tampered with by Russian intelligence. The allegations are still being investigated by US intelligence agencies.
This is the two leaders’ first official meeting
While they are suspected to have been in bed since long before Trump took office, with Russian spies who have ties back to the Kremlin believed to have been pulling the strings and tweaking the result of Trump’s Presidential campaign, this is the first time they are sitting down together to meet in the public eye.
The US President himself has adamantly claimed to have never met Putin before, although he did tell Jesse Watters on his Fox News Channel show “Watters’ World” that he thinks the Russian leader is “a tough cookie.”
Now, having been in the White House for a full six months (and spent that time running the country into the ground), Trump is finally sitting down with Putin. Who knows how long the meeting would’ve taken to come to fruition had they not both happened to have been in Hamburg for the G20 summit with a spare bit of time on their hands? Anyway, this meeting could clear the air a bit with regards to Trump and Putin’s relationship, since the lies and deceit will show in how they act around one another and speak to each other.
Journalists were only allowed in to see and listen to a very brief segment of the meeting, so all the shady stuff was discussed after they got shunned out. Trump was quoted as saying that he and his administration are excited about “a lot of very positive things happening for Russia, for the United States, and for everyone concerned.” While the meeting between Trump and Putin was going on (and the G20 summit as a whole), police had their work cut out for them as protestors stormed the scene to protest capitalism.
Authorities were blasting them away with hoses while they exercised their human right to demonstrate.
‘It’s an honour to be with you’
Trump told Putin, “It’s an honour to be with you.” Putin replied, saying that he was “delighted to be able to meet you personally, Mr. President.” He added, echoing what Trump had already said, that he was looking forward to their meeting in the hopes that could “yield concrete results.” Trump said that he was having “very, very good talks” with Putin.
But he usually says “great.” He calls everything “great,” but not this? So, Trump’s talks with Putin are very, very good, but not great.
Trump and Putin did not meet alone. They were joined by Rex Tillerson, the Secretary of State appointed by Trump, and Sergei Lavrov, the Foreign Minister for Russia. It should be an interesting and heated sit-down, since just yesterday Trump referred to Russia as a destabilising force bent on crushing the west. How good does that sound?
Trump was disconcertingly vague about the topics they would cover during their meeting. He simply said that he had been discussing “various things” with Putin. Putin was less vague than Trump, but still pretty vague, telling journalists via a translator that he had been discussing bilateral problems and international crises.
Putin also noted the importance of a face-to-face meeting with the US President, saying that a “phone conversation is never enough.” That shows that good things could come of this meeting. Let’s see what US intelligence find following their investigation into the Trump/Russia collusion before we get too excited.
