Russian puppet Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, after their two-hour and 10 minute one-on-one meeting (scheduled to last just 90 minutes, at which Putin asserted his dominance by showing up 45 minutes late) and lunch, which did include national security staff, met the press. That was after a frightening opening—a credentialed journalist reportedly from The Nation was forcibly removed from the hall. Not a great look for the supposed president of the United States.
Just three days after the indictments of 12 Russian intelligence officers in election interference, Trump and Putin were united in denying it happened. "Zero collusion," Trump reiterated, saying that the probe is "a disaster for this nation," and that "everybody knows" there's no collusion. "No collusion at all," standing right next to Putin, on live TV, when the entire U.S. intelligence community says the opposite. When asked point blank, which side he was on—Putin's or his own intelligence agencies—Trump said "I don't see any reason why it would be" Russia meddling in the election.
Trump said that the two "spent a good deal of time talking about" whether there was election interference, handing the issue off to Putin saying "he has an interesting idea," and that he "may want to talk" more about it. That idea apparently is to jointly analyze any evidence in the US-Russian cyber group he and Trump agreed to in their last meeting. Yes, he wants Russian cybersecurity forces to join with American cybersecurity forces. Which Trump says is an "interesting idea." But, he reiterated, "you can trust no one. Where did you get this idea that President Trump trusts me or I trust him? He defends the interests of the USA. I do defend the interests of the Russia."
Putin, clearly in control of this meeting, took the lead and spoke first, calling the summit "frank and business-like … a success and fruitful." He said that they covered key issues of global agenda, and determined that the "cold war is a thing of the past." He reinforced Trump's world vision, talking about the "creeping threats of terrorism" and "transnational crime," and put Russia on equal footing as the leaders of the globe. He called for closer cooperation between the U.S. and Russia in Syria. He also slyly slammed Trump for leaving the Iran Deal, saying that he "mentioned our concern about the withdrawal of the US from the deal. Thanks to the Iranian nuclear deal, Iran submitted to the control of IAEA, it effectively ensures peaceful nature of Iranian nuclear program." He also suggested that the U.S. could help in leaning on Ukraine to be more cooperative with Russia.
For his part, Trump fell back on his favorite theme, his electoral college victory. Saying that "our relationship has never been worse than it is now," he said that "changed as of about 4 hours ago. I really believe that." He went on to lavishly praise Putin, congratulating him on his “best ever” World Cup and thanking him repeatedly for "advancing open dialogue" and promising to meet again in future, "often."