Trump sets expectations low for Helsinki summit with Putin

In this July 7, 2017 file photo, US President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 Summit in Hamburg. AP

GLASGOW, Scotland — President Donald Trump says “nothing bad … maybe some good” will come out of his summit Monday with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Finland.

Trump says in a television interview that he’s going into the meeting with “low expectations. I’m not going with high expectations.”

The president also tells CBS News that he “hadn’t thought” about asking Putin to extradite the dozen Russian military intelligence officers indicted this past week in Washington on charges related to the hacking of Democratic targets in the 2016 U.S. election, but says that “certainly I’ll be asking about it.”

The United States has no extradition treaty with Moscow and can’t compel Russia to hand over citizens, and a provision in Russia’s constitution prohibits extraditing its citizens to foreign countries.

Trump is blaming the Democratic National Committee for “allowing themselves to be hacked.”

The president taped the interview Saturday in Scotland, a day before he was set to leave for Helsinki for the summit. CBS released excerpts on Sunday.
Trump says he believes such get-togethers are beneficial. He cites his historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June as “a good thing” and says “having meetings with Russia, China, North Korea, I believe in it.”

The president says “nothing bad is going to come out of it (Helsinki), and maybe some good will come out.” /ee