Trump confirms plans to meet Putin after attacking the US, taking Russia's side on 2016 election meddling by Alex Lockie on Jun 28, 2018, 8:18 AM Advertisement
 - President Donald Trump pushed Russia's version of events on alleged election meddling in a tweet on Thursday.
- The post advanced conspiracy theories while questioning US law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
- Shorlty after the tweet, the White House confirmed the Trump-Putin summit for July 16 in Helsinki, Finland.
- Trump has a history of siding with dictators if they back his version of events.
President Donald Trump pushed Russia's version of events on alleged election meddling on Thursday, with a tweet that advanced conspiracy theories while questioning US law enforcement and intelligence agencies. "Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election! Where is the DNC Server, and why didn’t Shady James Comey and the now disgraced FBI agents take and closely examine it? Why isn’t Hillary/Russia being looked at? So many questions, so much corruption!" Trump tweeted. The message came a few minutes before the White House finalised plans for Trump to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin at a summit in Finland next month. Trump has long questioned if Russia helped him with the 2016 presidential election against Hillary Clinton, despite the US intelligence community and the Senate Intelligence Committee formally stating that it was Russia's goal to meddle in the election in his favor. By stating Russia's side in the argument, that Moscow did not meddle in the US election, Trump went against the US intelligence community. Trump then threw into question the FBI by attacking its former director James Comey as "shady," and then the entire US government by raising corruption as a possible factor in its carriage of justice. Not along after the tweet, the White House posted official confirmation that Trump and Putin will meet in Helsinki, the Finnish capital, on July 16. Trump's National Security Adviser, John Bolton, a noted Russia hawk, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday and appeared to completely flip his stance on the Kremlin. Bolton, before joining the Trump administration, said Russia's election interference was "truly an act of war" against the US, and that a policy based on trusting Russia was "doomed to failure." But on Wednesday, Bolton came off as broadly supportive of a meeting between Putin and Trump, and praised the Russian leaders' courtesy and respect at the meeting. When Trump emerged from his summit with Kim Jong Un without any certifiable steps towards his stated goal of denuclearizing the country, he stressed that he was taking Kim's word for it that he would disarm. Experts say with near unanimity that Trump did not secure any credible steps towards, or even a timeline or promises for denuclearization in North Korea. Trump has since gone on to praise Kim's human rights record, which is one of the world's worst.
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