Donald Trump met Russia’s Vladimir Putin on a variety of occasions during his first term, though most were relatively brief interactions on the sidelines of G20 and APEC gatherings. There was, however, one summit between the two leaders.
As Trump and Putin prepare for their second summit in Alaska, it’s worth remembering just how badly the American president failed in his first attempt.
In July 2018, ahead of a bilateral meeting in Helsinki, White House officials provided Trump with a lengthy briefing book, intended to steer the Republican into taking a firm line with his Russian counterpart. Trump either didn’t read or chose to ignore his own team’s guidance.
After a private meeting with the Russian leader in which the American president confiscated his interpreters’ notes for reasons that were never explained, the Republican held a disastrous press conference in which Trump defended America’s adversary, took cheap shots at his own country, and sided with Putin over the judgment of American intelligence professionals.
Soon after, The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence officials “were unanimous in saying that they and their colleagues were aghast at how Mr. Trump had handled himself with Mr. Putin.” One official summarized a consensus view, concluding that it was clear whose side Trump was on, and “it isn’t ours.”
Former CIA Director John Brennan argued at the time that Trump’s performance in Helsinki exceeded the threshold of “high crimes [and] misdemeanors,” was “nothing short of treasonous,” and offered timely evidence that “he is wholly in the pocket of Putin.”








