U.S. President Donald J. Trump told reporters he wants to keep sanctions against Russia, but sidestepped a question about whether he would sign a new bill on the measures.
In a conversation with reporters on board Air Force One on his way to Paris, text of which was released by the White House on July 12 and republished by several media, Trump claimed he has never planned to ease the Russian sanctions.
“I would not and have never even thought about taking them off,” Trump told the journalists, adding that the current sanctions are “very heavy.”
“Somebody said, Donald Trump wants to — I don’t want to take them off,” he said.
He said the sanctions would remain in place until “satisfactory” solutions are achieved in Ukraine and Syria.
“I would never take the sanctions off until something is worked out to our satisfaction and everybody’s satisfaction in Syria and Ukraine,” he said.
Trump added that he didn’t discuss the sanctions during his meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany last week.
Throughout his election campaign and his time as president, Trump has frequently talked of improving relations with Kremlin. But he has been dogged by accusations that his team has had inappropriate contacts with the Kremlin.
Earlier this year he had to sack his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who had been accused of taking money from the Russian government without disclosing it.
Meanwhile, U.S. legislators are trying to lock the current sanctions on Russia into a bill, which would enable Congress to block Trump from easing them.
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on July 12 tabled a Russia and Iran sanctions bill, which is a new version of a Senate bill that has been stalled since June 15.
Trump didn’t say whether he would sign this bill if it ends up on his desk.
In his conversation with the journalists, which they initially believed was off the record, before the White House published it, Trump also defended his son for meeting with a Russian lawyer during his electoral campaign last year.
Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who was representing the Russian government, met with Donald Trump Jr. and offered him compromising material on then-candidate Hillary Clinton, according to media reports.
“Don is — as many of you know Don — he’s a good boy. He’s a good kid. And he had a meeting, nothing happened with the meeting,” Trump said.
“Honestly, in a world of politics, most people are going to take that meeting.”
Trump also said he asked Putin on whether Russia meddled in the U.S. election campaign and he assured him that he didn’t.
“What I said, I asked him, were you involved? He said, very strongly — said to him a second time — totally different — were you involved? Because we can’t let that happen,” Trump said.
“And I’m not saying it wasn’t Russia. What I’m saying is that we have to protect ourselves no matter who it is.”
Trump also said he would invite Putin to the White House when the right time comes.
“I don’t think this is the right time, but the answer is yes I would,” he said.
“Look, it’s very easy for me to say absolutely, I won’t. That’s the easy thing for me to do, but that’s the stupid thing to do. Let’s be the smart people not the stupid people.”
