Why did Donald Trump ‘side with Russia’ on election meddling?

Donald Trump has offered an “extraordinary show of trust”, after siding with Russian president Vladimir Putin’s assertion that Moscow did not interfere in the 2016 US presidential election.

At a press conference following a summit between the two leaders in Helsinki, Trump “handed Russian President Vladimir Putin an unalloyed diplomatic triumph”, by refusing to support the collective conclusion of the US intelligence agencies on the issue, the Washington Post says.

“They said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia,” Trump said. “President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”

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Trump’s statements “amounted to an unprecedented refusal by a US president to believe his own intelligence agencies over the word of a foreign adversary”, CNN says.

The New York Times says Trump’s comments drew “howls of protests from Democrats and some Republicans”, and prompted John O. Brennan, who served as CIA director under Barack Obama, “to suggest that the remarks warranted Mr. Trump’s impeachment”.

“Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanours’. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin,” Brennan wrote on Twitter.

Similarly, Republican House Leader Paul Ryan was publicly at odds with Trump’s statements during the Helsinki press conference.

“There is no question that Russia interfered in our election and continues attempts to undermine democracy,” Ryan said in a statement.

The New York Times also reports that “Trump’s mood grew foul as the breadth of the critical reactions became clear” during the Air Force One flight back to Washington, with aides steering clear of the front of the plane “to avoid being tapped for a venting session” with Trump.

Why did Trump take Putin’s side?

In the wake of Trump’s Helsinki appearance, New York Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader of the Senate, said: “A single, ominous question now hangs over the White House: What could possibly cause President Trump to put the interests of Russia over those of the United States? Millions of Americans will continue to wonder.”

According to Schumer there is only one possible explanation: “the possibility that President Putin holds damaging information over President Trump.”