WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump confirmed in an interview published on Wednesday that he did not discuss intelligence about possible Russian rewards on US troops in Afghanistan with Russian President Vladimir Putin when they spoke on the phone last week.
“It was a phone call to discuss other things and, frankly, that’s an issue that a lot of people said was fake news,” Trump said in an interview with Axios.
When asked who said intelligence was false news, Trump said, “I think a lot of people,” including people from the Bush administration, some of whom said, “They are not my friends.”
Instead, Trump said, he and Putin discussed “numerous things,” including nuclear proliferation.
The president also reiterated that he never saw intelligence, even though it was reportedly in his written presidential brief. The New York Times first reported intelligence. Trump previously called the information a “hoax.”
“No, it never came to my desk,” he said in the interview, adding that his assistants did not believe it was real.
Earlier this week, Trump did not say whether he had discussed the rewards with Putin.
In response to the Axios interview, Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said Trump “continues to turn his back on those who risked their lives for our country” and “is absolutely despicable.”
