At Monday’s summit, with Trump by his side, the Russian president admitted to the world that he wanted Trump to be the victor in the 2016 election. Here’s the exchange, from the transcript:
REPORTER: “Did you want President Trump to win the election? And did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?”
PUTIN: “Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal.”
Putin didn’t respond to the second part of the reporter’s question, and Trump did not respond to Putin’s admission that he did in fact want Trump to win. It is not clear whether the U.S. president believes Putin.
