President Trump says his previously undisclosed one-on-one with Vladimir Putin was no secret and no big deal—and the media is "sick" for suggesting otherwise. Trump reportedly spoke to Putin for around an hour after leaving his seat during a couples-only dinner with other leaders during the G20 summit. He had met with Putin earlier in the day with aides present. "All G 20 leaders, and spouses, were invited by the Chancellor of Germany," Trump tweeted late Tuesday. "Press knew!" In a statement, the White House said the talk was a "brief conversation" and any insinuation that the administration tried to hide it "is false, malicious, and absurd," USA Today reports.
"The Fake News is becoming more and more dishonest!" Trump said in a second tweet. "Even a dinner arranged for top 20 leaders in Germany is made to look sinister!" But despite efforts to downplay the meeting, some analysts say it raises security concerns. Besides Putin and Trump, the only person party to the conversation was Putin's translator, meaning there is no independent American account of the meeting and what was discussed. "If I was in the Kremlin, my recommendation to Putin would be, 'See if you can get this guy alone,' and that's what it sounds like he was able to do," former ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer tells the New York Times. (More Vladimir Putin stories.)
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