Trump says Mueller probe has "driven a wedge" between U.S., Russia

WASHINGTON, July 17 (KUNA) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that the probe of Special Counsel Robert Mueller has "driven a wedge between us and Russia." Trump told Fox News following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, "maybe we've just knocked down that wedge, but it has driven a wedge and President Putin said that." "One of the early things he said when we started was, 'It's really a shame, because we could do so much good' ... And they drove a phony wedge, it's a phony witch hunt. It's a real shame," he added.
He noted that he had "a very long meeting, and it was a good meeting" with Putin, "it was just the two of us and interpreters and at the end of this meeting, I think we really came to a lot of good conclusions." He affirmed "I think we're doing really well with Russia as of today. I thought we were doing horribly before today ... I think we really had a potential problem." "We're two nuclear nations. 90 percent of the nuclear power in the world between these two nations. And we've had a phony, witch hunt deal drive us apart," he remarked.
Meanwhile, Trump said on Iran, Putin "probably would have liked to keep the deal in place because that's good for Russia... but it's not good for this country and it's ultimately not good for the world." He added "Iran is falling apart. They have riots in all of their cities. The inflation is rampant, going through the roof, they are having big protests all over the country, probably as big as they have ever had before and that all happened since I terminated that deal." (end) si.tg