Officials say Trump ignored their advice to take a firm stance with Putin
Ahead of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump was urged by White House officials to be tough with Putin, but he chose to go a different route, several advisers and diplomats told The Washington Post.
Trump received more than 100 pages of briefing materials before the summit, going through a crash course on everything from the Russian annexation of Crimea to meddling in the 2016 presidential election, the Post reports. He was quick to let staffers know that he thought the U.S. "has been foolish" when it comes to Russia, and he spent his prep time "growling" over the indictment last week of 12 Russian intelligence officers accused of hacking into Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign emails.
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