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President Trump meets with Cabinet, has little to say about Vladimir Putin

WASHINGTON — President Trump told his Cabinet Wednesday he had a great trip to Europe, but made little reference to the uproar over his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Asked if Russia is still targeting the United States ahead of this year's congressional elections, Trump said "no," and claimed that no one has been as tough as him in sanctioning bad behavior — though U.S. intelligence agencies said Putin's government remains a threat.

Earlier in the day, Trump sought to exercise damage control via Twitter by declaring his Putin meeting a success, despite the bipartisan criticism from lawmakers who said the president took Putin's side in a dispute over Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

"Some people HATE the fact that I got along well with President Putin of Russia," Trump said during a morning tweet storm. "They would rather go to war than see this. It’s called Trump Derangement Syndrome!"

Trump and the White House sought for a second straight day to calm the furor over his comments Monday, when he sided with Putin's denials over the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that the Russians hacked into the 2016 elections in order to help Trump.

On Tuesday, Trump said he does indeed believe the intelligence community's conclusion about Russian meddling, though he added that others could have been involved as well. He also said he misspoke during his ill-fated news conference with Putin.

Trump met with Cabinet members to discuss a variety of initiatives being undertaken by his administration.

Among the comments:

  • Trump threatened "tremendous retribution" against the European Union if EU officials don't give him a "fair" trade deal on automobiles during meetings scheduled for next week.
  • Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed some progress on a nuclear weapons agreement with North Korea, but said the parties still have a long way to go.