‘The Body Language, the Chemistry, the Fact That It Went on for So Long’
Foreign leaders at the G-20 in Hamburg, Germany earlier this month reportedly were surprised to see a second meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the political scientist who weeks later broke the news of the secretive rendezvous the White House wanted to hide from the American public.
Ian Bremmer, the president of the Eurasia Group, on Tuesday first revealed that Trump and Putin met the same evening as their highly-anticipated first meeting, which ran well-over two hours. This second meeting, which reportedly took place out in the open but included only the two leaders and a Russian government translator, was both unscheduled and unrecorded, which is highly unusual.
Bremmer tells MSNBC Wednesday morning that it’s not unusual for foreign leaders to have “pull asides,” short conversations with each other while at the G-20. “But what is unusual is the length, the warmth — in the context of what is already an unprecedented relationship between Trump and Putin in the context of the broader U.S.-Russia relationship,” Bremmer said on “Morning Joe.”
“I will tell you many of the leaders that were in that room, including America’s most important allies, were quite surprised. They found it unusual and noteworthy, the body language, the chemistry, the fact that it went on for so long, and the fact that it reflected a much warmer relationship between Trump and Putin than he has with any of the other leaders in the room,” Bremmer observed.
“I think in the context of a president who has already unnerved a lot of world leaders, making them wonder to what extent is the Trump administration committed to them, whether it’s on security or trade or climate, that’s where the true uniqueness comes along.”
Bremer also spoke with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Tuesday night. An excerpt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Yran_fuk4A#t=373
The Trump White House is furious with reports of the second, secret meeting, calling the hour-long nighttime exchange “just a brief conversation at the end of a dinner,” and “not merely perfectly normal,” but, “part of a President’s duties.”
If so, the president did not fulfill his “duties” with any other foreign leader at the G-20.
And clearly attendees, including other world leaders, disagree.
Trump himself went ballistic Tuesday night, after the news spread.
“Fake News story of secret dinner with Putin is ‘sick.’ All G 20 leaders, and spouses, were invited by the Chancellor of Germany. Press knew!” he tweeted. But the press did not know he spent an entire hour alone with Putin and Putin’s translator. These events are always attended by at least an American translator, and generally a member of the White House national security council.
“The Fake News is becoming more and more dishonest! Even a dinner arranged for top 20 leaders in Germany is made to look sinister!” Trump decried.
It’s not the dinner that’s “sinister,” it’s the dessert.Â