President Trump had Russian Foreign Minister Sergi Lavrov in the Oval Office on the same day that the Articles of Impeachment were unveiled in Congress. It is unclear as to who invited Lavrov to the Oval Office, as the White House announced the visit only a day before he came, and Russia had previously made known the visit was coming. Nonetheless the optics were bad, as Lavrov and the Russian ambassador to the U.S. were in the Oval Office shorty after James Comey was fired as the FBI director. It was in that earlier meeting that Trump said the firing of Comey "lifted a cloud" from himself.
Trump has said that he warned Lavrov not to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election; however, when Lavrov was asked by a reporter if Trump made the warning, he answered that elections were not discussed. Of course, Lavrov could be lying, but Trump has a much stronger demonstrated penchant for lying.
When Trump made his visit to be with U.S troops in Afghanistan, he said that talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government would resume soon. Both the Taliban and the Afghan government denied that talks were imminent. Trump also falsely described the prior negotiations as being between the Afghan government and the Taliban,when the government had previously been left out, at least until an agreement had been reached.
After the conclusion of the meeting of NATO leaders, Trump said he got the NATO countries there to pony up another $530 billion in their defense budgets. No such meeting to increase defense budgets had been held; also, the leaders have legislatures that must approve any increases in defense spending. The goal for NATO countries to commit 2 percent of their GDPs to defense spending was set years ago, and remains the goal.
President Trump has described world leaders as laughing behind their backs at former president Barack Obama. Even if that were true, Trump received similar televised treatment by four world leaders scoffing at him. England's Boris Johnson, France's Emmanuel Macron, Canada's Justin Trudeau, and the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, were in a group, when Johnson asked Macron "Is that why you were late?" Macron had been challenged by Trump earlier in the day. Trudeau chimed in with "He [Trump] was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top. You just watched his teams' jaws drop to the floor." The four then dissolved in laughter.
Earlier in the day, Trump had asked Macron if he would like to receive some "ISIS fighters." Macron replied: "Let's get serious."
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