Putin’s comments in Helsinki about Trump's campaign come days after special counsel Robert Mueller offered the latest salvo in his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, indicting 12 Russian military intelligence officers accused of infiltrating Democratic Party computer servers.Īt the joint news conference, Putin denied any evidence that Russia was behind election meddling, while Trump tried to switch gears to a familiar refrain from the 2016 campaign: Clinton’s private email server. So what I keep hearing about that he would have rather had Trump, I think ‘probably not,’ because when I want a strong military, you know, she wouldn’t have spent the money on military,” Trump said in July 2017. Here’s why: On night three of the Democratic National Convention, former President Barack Obama charged that President Donald Trump has shown 'no interest' in taking his job seriously. “There are many things that I do that are the exact opposite of what he would want. Trump previously said Putin would have preferred to see his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton, in the White House - saying that was partly because Trump planned to ramp up military spending more than Clinton would have. The news conference - which came as the pair met at a much-anticipated summit in Helsinki - followed a closed-door meeting that lasted two hours, where they said they addressed issues including Syria, denuclearization and diplomatic relations.Īnd although Putin said he was rooting for Trump, the American president in the past denied that was the case. Putin was asked whether he directed any of his officials to help Trump’s presidential campaign, but Putin appeared to sidestep that part of the question.