Why did Donald Trump ‘side with Russia’ on election meddling?

US president openly questions findings of his own intelligence agencies

Donald Trump has sided with Putin over Russian meddling in US elections
Trump and Putin in Helsinki
(Image credit: Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Donald Trump has offered an “extraordinary show of trust”, after siding with Russian president Vladimir Putin’s assertion that Moscow did not interfere in the 2016 US presidential election.

At a press conference following a summit between the two leaders in Helsinki, Trump “handed Russian President Vladimir Putin an unalloyed diplomatic triumph”, by refusing to support the collective conclusion of the US intelligence agencies on the issue, the Washington Post says.

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