Twitter Reacts To Trump-Putin Second ‘Secret’ Meeting During G20 Summit Dinner

Social media was aghast at the news of President Donald Trump having a second “secret” meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a July 7 dinner organized by German Chancellor Angela Merkel for all the world leaders who attended the G20 summit.

The White House however, put out a statement Tuesday, saying the two presidents did come face to face for a second time but it was merely a social exchange which had nothing secretive about it. The only ones present during the encounter were Trump, Putin, Melania Trump and a translator.

“There was no ‘second’ meeting between President Trump and President Putin, just a brief conversation at the end of a dinner. The insinuation that the White House has tried to ‘hide’ a second meeting is false, malicious and absurd,” according to the White House statement.

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The statement further added that: “It is not merely perfectly normal, it is part of the President’s duty, to interact with world leaders. Throughout his G20 and in all his other foreign engagements, President Trump has demonstrated American leadership by representing our interests and values on the world stage.”

Trump spoke out on Twitter, condemning the media and saying the press was well aware of the fact that all the world leaders who attended the G20 summit were invited for dinner by the German chancellor.

Political scientist Ian Bremmer however, counter-attacked the president’s tweet, saying the press might have been aware of the dinner itself, but that Trump and Putin had an hour long conversation during the dinner.

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President of New York-based research and consulting firm, Eurasia Group, Bremmer also told the New York Times the foreign leaders who attended the dinner along with Trump were surprised at the leader of the United States engaging in a prolonged conversation with Putin.

“Pretty much everyone at the dinner thought this was really weird, that here is the president of the United States, who clearly wants to display that he has a better relationship personally with President Putin than any of us, or simply doesn’t care,” said Bremmer, adding he had heard it directly from people who were at the dinner. “They were flummoxed, they were confused and they were startled.”

Twitter had other dignitaries and journalists also expressing their less-than jovial reactions to the conversation between the president and the Kremlin leader, demanding the White House release details of it. Congressional Rep Ted Lieu (D-California) suggested that Trump’s meeting with Putin was nothing short of “nefarious” because he did not invite Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to witness it. Lieu also said the president had no reason to act “beholden” to his Russian counterpart.

Former US Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul also tweeted on the issue, stating either Trump should tweet out the content of his meeting with Putin or the White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer should be tasked with providing more details on the matter.

Meanwhile, an attorney as well as freelance journalist, Seth Abramson suggested it was illegal on the president's part to have no other American citizen present during the hour-long meeting with Putin. He also said it was a “breach of international protocol” and that he did not believe the White House would have tried to keep the news of the second meeting between Trump and Putin under wraps if a formal order did not come from the president himself.

CNN's Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto wrote that the meeting in question could not have been an informal one because it lasted an hour. On the other hand, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow wondered if the White House will release transcript of both the meetings between Trump and Putin in the G20 summit.