The White House gave Republicans positive talking points from the Trump-Putin summit. No one is using them.

The White House has tried to squeeze every positive ounce out of President Trump's Monday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But there may not be much there.

Congressional Republicans received their daily set of talking points from the White House on Tuesday, which are meant to help the party and the president keep a united front. But half of Tuesday's list was just a backstory of the U.S.-Russia summit in Helsinki, Finland. The other half includes four bulleted times Trump acknowledged Russian meddling or said he trusted American intelligence — four times within the full 18 months of his presidency.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Those bullet points attempt to contradict nearly everyone's criticism of Trump's post-summit press conference with Putin on Monday: that the president questioned Russia's involvement in the 2016 election instead of condemning it. But Republicans aren't taking the bait and using the points, notes NBC News' Peter Alexander — perhaps because most of them already saw the whole press conference and ripped it to shreds.