Trump on Russian Interference in Elections: I Trust Our Intelligence Agencies

Donald Trump, in response to a question about Russian interference in last year's U.S. presidential elections, emphasized that he trusts U.S. intelligence agencies. However, he also described Vladimir Putin's statements denying Russia's interference in the elections as credible. According to Time magazine, the U.S. President on Sunday, during a joint press conference with his Vietnamese counterpart in Hanoi, referred to Vladimir Putin's remarks, stating, "I believe he feels that he or Russia did not interfere in the elections." At the same time, Mr. Trump praised U.S. intelligence agencies, saying, "Good people are currently managing our agencies, and I have a lot of trust in them." The CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia intervened in last year's presidential election to help Trump defeat his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Sunday marked the second consecutive day that Trump commented on Russia and the U.S. elections. The day before, he told reporters traveling with him to Hanoi, Vietnam, that Putin had once again firmly denied these claims. Donald Trump arrived in the Philippines on Sunday, the last stop of his Asian tour, to participate in several international meetings and meet with his Filipino counterpart, Rodrigo Duterte. Before departing for the Philippines, he spoke about the punitive sanctions imposed by the U.S. against Russia for alleged election interference, calling the level of sanctions "very high" and stating, "The time has come to address the troubled and fragmented world." On the sidelines of the APEC summit in Vietnam, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump had a brief meeting. Currently, allegations regarding Russian interference in last year's elections are at the center of a broad investigation in the U.S.