‘Don’t meddle in US elections,’ Donald Trump jokingly tells Vladimir Putin
The US president said he enjoyed a ‘very, very good relationship’ with Putin, and ‘many positive things are going to come out of the relationship’.
United States President Donald Trump on Friday jokingly asked Russian President Vladimir Putin not to meddle in the 2020 United States Presidential Elections, AFP reported. He appeared to make light of an investigation in the US on Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 elections.
“Don’t meddle in the election, president, don’t meddle,” Trump said with a smile, while wagging his finger playfully at the Russian leader, during talks in Osaka, Japan, on the sidelines of the G20 Summit. A reporter asked loudly whether Trump would warn Putin about influencing the presidential vote next year, which made the Russian leader smile.
Trump said he enjoyed a “very, very good relationship” with Putin, and “many positive things are going to come out of the relationship”, CNN reported. “We have many things to discuss, including trade and some disarmament, some little protectionism, in a very positive way,” Trump said.
This was the first meeting between the two leaders since the since the conclusion of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US elections. The investigation established that there was insufficient evidence to charge Trump of collusion with Russia. The US president had claimed the inquiry was a witch hunt.