Trump smiles and tells Putin ‘don’t meddle’

BREAKING NEWS: ‘Don’t meddle’: Trump smiles and raises a finger at Putin during sit-dow as he tells the Russian not to interfere in the elections when reporter asks him about it

  • Trump and Putin held a bilateral meeting Friday in Osaka, Japan 
  • A reporter asked if Trump would ask Putin not to meddle in the elections 
  • Trump told Putin:  ‘Don’t meddle in the election, please’
  • He smiled and pointed his finger when making the request 
  • Earlier, the two men chatted on the way to a ‘family photo’
  • It was their first meeting since the Mueller report
  • The report states that Putin directed an election interference campaign
  • Trump said in advance he ‘may’ raise interference with Putin 

President Donald Trump told Russian President Vladimir Putin not to meddle in the elections – with a smile. 

The president was asked at the top of a meeting Friday in Japan whether he would tell the Russian president not to interfere in the elections – as the Mueller report concludes Russia did in 2016. 

‘Yes of course I will,’ Trump responded. 

‘Don’t meddle in the election, please,’ Trump told Putin, with a smile on his face, turning to the Russian amid cross talk in a room packed full of reporters and dignitaries.

‘Don’t meddle,’ Trump told Russia’s President Vladimir Putin when asked about election interference during the G20 summit in Osaka on June 28, 2019

‘Don’t meddle in the election,’ Trump repeated. 

He smiled at his counterpart as he made the statement.

Earlier, Trump told reporters: ‘We’ve had great meetings. We’ve had very, very good relationship. And we look forward to spending some very good time together.

‘A lot of very positive things going to come out of the relationship. So Vladimir, thank you very much,’ Trump said.  

The two men shook hands at the top of a meeting

The two men shook hands at the top of a meeting

'A lot of very positive things going to come out of the relationship,' Trump said

‘A lot of very positive things going to come out of the relationship,’ Trump said

The two men met for the first time since the release of the Mueller report Friday

The two men met for the first time since the release of the Mueller report Friday 

The two men were seated next to each other with a floral arrangement. 

Putin spoke only in broad strokes in brief comments, speaking in Russian through a translator.

‘We haven’t seen each other since Helsinki meeting,’ Putin noted, referencing their summit meeting where Trump took heat domestically for saying he accepted Putin’s denial of election interference – which is contradicted by the U.S. Intelligence Community assessment. 

Before his trip to Japan, Trump said that he ‘may’ raise the issue of Russia’s election interference.  

There was an earlier show of camaraderie, as the two men chatted on the way to a ‘family photo’ at the G20 summit here in Osaka.

Trump patted Putin gently on the back on the way to the event, where he stood next to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk