Asked about his call to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Aug. 18, U.S. President Donald Trump seemed to be making a point in the details that he chose to provide to Fox News yesterday, as reported by The Hill. He said that he dismissed himself from the meeting with the European “Coalition of the Willing” leaders to make the call: “I didn’t do it in front of them—I thought that would be disrespectful to President Putin. I wouldn’t do that, because they have not had the warmest relations. And actually, President Putin wouldn’t talk to the people from Europe. I mean, that was part of the problem.”
Otherwise, he added: “I think I sort of knew, I was—at the end of the meeting, I was going to call President Putin, and President Putin expected it, and he was there. Now, by the time I called him, it was 1 o’clock in the morning in Russia. But he … picked it up very happily. Sure, he works very hard, like we all do. And, we had a very good call....”
