President Trump on Saturday defended his behavior with foreign strongmen at the G-20 summit, saying 13 Saudis are being prosecuted for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and that he technically told Russian President Vladimir Putin not to meddle in U.S. elections, despite his joking tone.
“I did say it. And I did discuss it a little bit after that,” Mr. Trump said, referring to his smirk during a Friday sit-down with the Russian president in front of the TV cameras.
Mr. Trump didn’t elaborate on the discussion, though said Mr. Putin continues to deny any interference.
“How many times can you get someone to deny something?” Mr. Trump said. “We talked about it. We talked about a lot of other things.”
Also Saturday, Mr. Trump declined to take up reporters’ calls for comment on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s alleged role in the death of Khashoggi — a Washington Post columnist who was killed and cut into pieces at the Saudi kingdom’s Istanbul consulate in October.
Mr. Trump said he is “extremely angry” about the killing, which has been linked to Khashoggi’s criticism of Saudi leadership.
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“I’m very unhappy about the whole event,” he said.
But Mr. Trump said the Saudis have “taken it very, very seriously,” by prosecuting over a dozen suspects, effectively turning the focus away from the crown prince.
Mr. Trump said Saudi Arabia is a tremendous ally that creates U.S. jobs by purchasing military equipment.
“I get along with President Putin, I get along with Mohammad from Saudi Arabia,” Mr. Trump told reporters.
Mr. Trump has rankled Democrats, and others, by seeming to make light of Russian meddling, which special counsel Robert Mueller described as “sweeping and systematic” in his report on the 2016 presidential campaign.
The special counsel didn’t find a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, so the president feels vindicated.
Former President Jimmy Carter, in an interview at the Carter Center’s retreat, suggested Mr. Trump is an “illegitimate” president because the Russians intervened.
Mr. Trump hit back from Osaka.
“He’s a nice man. He was a terrible president. He’s a Democrat, and it’s a typical talking point,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Carter, who served in the White House from 1977 to 1981.
“I won not because of Russia, not because of anybody, but because of myself. I campaigned better, smarter, harder. I went to Wisconsin. I went to Michigan the night of the vote,” he said.
Mr. Carter, he added, is “like a forgotten president.”
“He was not a good president,” Mr. Trump said. “Look at what happened with Iran, it was a disaster.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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