President Donald Trump has asked national security adviser John Bolton to invite President Vladimir Putin of Russia to Washington for another meeting this fall.
On Thursday, Trump said that he is "looking forward" to meeting again with Putin to "begin implementing" the issues they discussed during their meeting earlier this week in Helsinki, Finland.
Trump, who touched off a major political controversy with his embrace of Putin's word over the conclusions of his own national intelligence community, accused the news media — which he again dubbed the "enemy of the people" — of distorting the summit and pining for a confrontation between the U.S. and Russia.
In a series of tweets Thursday morning, Trump claimed his meeting with Putin "was a great success."
"The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media," Trump wrote. "I look forward to our second meeting so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed, including stopping terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear proliferation, cyber attacks, trade, Ukraine, Middle East peace, North Korea and more."
"There are many answers, some easy and some hard, to these problems...but they can ALL be solved!" Trump tweeted.
Following his summit with Trump, Putin announced that he and his U.S. counterpart had reached several agreements, but neither the White House nor the Pentagon have confirmed any agreements had been made between the two countries or offered any details.
Trump has faced widespread criticism from lawmakers from all political stripes in the fallout of his summit with Putin over his assertion that he believed Putin's denials over the findings of the U.S. intelligence community that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election.
As controversy mounted over his assertion that he believed Putin's word over the findings of the U.S. intelligence community, Trump attempted to walk back his remarks, in part, by claiming that "other people" could have also meddled in the 2016 election.
In a reversal, Trump claimed to the world that he had simply misspoken by one word during his press conference in Finland. The president explained that he had intended to say he did not see any reason why it "wouldn't" be Russia – a double negative.
"I thought that I made myself very clear, but having just reviewed the transcript, I realized that there is a need for some clarification," Trump said at the White House. "The sentence should have been, 'I don't see any reason why I wouldn't, or why it wouldn’t be Russia.'"
On Thursday, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper confirmed that he and other intelligence officers had briefed Trump, who was president-elect at the time, on a report by the U.S. intelligence community that found Putin had personally ordered cyberattacks aimed at helping him win the 2016 presidential election.
In an interview with CNN, Clapper said Trump listened to the briefing with "some skepticism."
"What struck me and others as quite unusual was, before we left the room, they started writing a press release about our encounter. And, were trying to say that the Russian meddling — the Russian interference — had no impact on the election," Clapper said. "We didn't say that. We could not say that. That isn't the charter or capability of the intelligence community to do that."
"I do think there was skepticism from the get-go — from that day to this day — that indicated that anything that attacked the legitimacy or questioned the legitimacy of now-President Trump's election," Clapper added. "He just couldn't get his head around. He exhibited that that day, and he has ever since."
Clapper, who served as director of national intelligence from 2010-2017 and has emerged as an ardent Trump critic, said that he has been trying to "give the president the benefit of the doubt and always expressed potential other theories as to why he behaves as he does with respect to Russia generally and Putin specifically."
But, in the fallout of Trump's performance after Helsinki and since, he said: "I really do wonder if the Russians have something on him."
Clapper's remarks come one day after The New York Times reported that Trump was shown information indicating that Putin ordered cyberattacks designed to sway the 2016 presidential election. The newspaper reported that Clapper, along with former CIA Director John Brennan, former National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers and former FBI Director James Comey briefed Trump on documents, emails and texts that had lead them to conclude that Putin waged a disinformation and hacking campaign in an attempt to influence the election.
As mentioned, Trump on Monday said he saw no reason why Russia would meddle in the presidential election. One day later, Trump walked back the comment, saying he misspoke, while claiming that "other people" could have also interfered in the 2016 election.
And, when asked on Wednesday if he thought Russia is still targeting the U.S, Trump responded, "no." The White House later disputed the president's answer, claiming that Trump responded "no" to answering the reporter's question, not to the question itself.
Later in a CBS interview, Trump said he holds Putin personally responsible for Russia's election interference.
"I do have confidence in our intelligence agencies, as currently constituted," he said.
Last week, special counsel Robert Mueller charged one dozen Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democrats during the 2016 race.
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