--- title: Donald Trump: What He Said About Donald Jr.'s Russia Meeting description: President Trump defended his son's encounter with a Russian lawyer in an off-the-record conversation with reporters Wednesday canonical: https://time.com/4858423/donald-trump-donald-jr-russia-meeting-interview/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-14T14:22:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:33:48.821Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read What President Trump Said About Donald Jr.'s Russia Meeting in Off-the-Record Interview og:description: "He's a good kid" og:url: https://time.com/4858423/donald-trump-donald-jr-russia-meeting-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3239f8de73fc4c4/6988d5870a4a2219ef9cf090/president-donald-trump-cbo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4193 og:image:height: 2359 og:image:alt: FRANCE-US-DIPLOMACY og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read What President Trump Said About Donald Jr.'s Russia Meeting in Off-the-Record Interview twitter:description: "He's a good kid" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3239f8de73fc4c4/6988d5870a4a2219ef9cf090/president-donald-trump-cbo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read What President Trump Said About Donald Jr.'s Russia Meeting in Off-the-Record Interview > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jul 14, 2017 2:22 PM UTC  US President Donald Trump gets out of the car as he arrives at the Elysee Palace on July 13, 2017 in Paris for a 24-hour trip that coincides with France's national day and the 100th anniversary of US involvement in World War I. US President Donald Trump gets out of the car as he arrives at the Elysee Palace on July 13, 2017 in Paris for a 24-hour trip that coincides with France's national day and the 100th anniversary of US involvement in World War I. PATRICK KOVARIK—AFP/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jul 14, 2017 2:22 PM UTC President Trump defended his son’s [encounter with a Russian lawyer](http://time.com/4856233/donald-trump-jr-emails/?iid=sr-link2) in an [off-the-record conversation](http://time.com/4857608/donald-trump-russia-north-korea-health-care-obamacare/) with reporters Wednesday, saying, “In a world of politics, most people are going to take that meeting.” The interview, which was retroactively put on the record by the White House, took place Wednesday on Air Force One en route to France. Below, in an excerpt transcribed and shared by the White House, is what Trump said about his son Donald Jr.’s [email correspondence](http://time.com/4853057/donald-trump-jr-twitter-emails/?iid=sr-link10) and meeting with a Russian lawyer to obtain information about Hillary Clinton during the campaign. --- > “” --- You can read the rest of the conversation [here](http://time.com/4857608/donald-trump-russia-north-korea-health-care-obamacare/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4858423/donald-trump-donald-jr-russia-meeting-interview/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4858423/donald-trump-donald-jr-russia-meeting-interview/"},"headline":"Read What President Trump Said About Donald Jr.'s Russia Meeting in Off-the-Record Interview","datePublished":"2017-07-14T14:22:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:33:48.821Z","description":"President Trump defended his son's encounter with a Russian lawyer in an off-the-record conversation with reporters Wednesday","url":"https://time.com/4858423/donald-trump-donald-jr-russia-meeting-interview/","keywords":["White House","russia","onetime","president trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3239f8de73fc4c4/6988d5870a4a2219ef9cf090/president-donald-trump-cbo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3239f8de73fc4c4/6988d5870a4a2219ef9cf090/president-donald-trump-cbo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FRANCE-US-DIPLOMACY","caption":"FRANCE-US-DIPLOMACY","creditText":"PATRICK KOVARIK—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4858423/donald-trump-donald-jr-russia-meeting-interview/","name":"Read What President Trump Said About Donald Jr.'s Russia Meeting in Off-the-Record Interview"}}]}] ```