--- title: Donald Trump-Vladimir Putin Summit Transcript description: President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin today in Helsinki. Read a transcript of their joint press conference. canonical: https://time.com/5339848/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-transcript/ author: Abigail Simon article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-16T16:19:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T11:30:14.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read a Transcript of Trump and Putin's Joint Press Conference og:description: After their summit in Helsinki. og:url: https://time.com/5339848/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-transcript/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1751ab03957a682d/6989356ffb4eac92a78971ed/trump-putin-helsinki-press-conference.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Trump and Putin Helsinki Press Conference og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read a Transcript of Trump and Putin's Joint Press Conference twitter:description: After their summit in Helsinki. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1751ab03957a682d/6989356ffb4eac92a78971ed/trump-putin-helsinki-press-conference.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read a Transcript of Trump and Putin's Joint Press Conference by [Abigail Simon](https://time.com/author/abigail-simon/) ## Abigail Simon Updated: Jan 24, 2024 11:30 AM UTCPublished: Jul 16, 2018 4:19 PM UTC  US President Donald Trump (L) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin attend a joint press conference after a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, on July 16, 2018. US President Donald Trump (L) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin attend a joint press conference after a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, on July 16, 2018.YURI KADOBNOV—AFP/Getty Images by [Abigail Simon](https://time.com/author/abigail-simon/) ## Abigail Simon Updated: Jan 24, 2024 11:30 AM UTCPublished: Jul 16, 2018 4:19 PM UTC President Donald Trump [met with Russian President Vladimir Putin](http://time.com/5339522/trump-putin-summit-russia/) today in Helsinki. They gathered one-on-one, in the presence of only translators, for over two hours before they were then joined by a group of advisors. “Our relationship has never been worse than it is now,” Trump said. “However, that changed as of about four hours ago. I really believe that.” In a joint press conference following their meeting, Trump and Putin summarized the gist of what they had covered. They addressed nuclear weapons, as [two of the world’s leading nuclear powers](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/16/world/europe/trump-putin-summit-helsinki.html), and the push for denuclearization in North Korea. They also recounted discussing the ongoing crisis in Syria, where Russia has been criticized for [supporting President Assad’s regime](https://www.npr.org/2017/04/08/523103217/why-vladimir-putin-continues-to-back-the-assad-regime), and the [natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/07/11/the-russian-pipeline-to-germany-that-trump-is-so-mad-about-explained/), which Trump has recently criticized. On the subject of Russian interference in the U.S. elections, a topic people are watching closely after [special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence operatives](http://time.com/5338172/rod-rosenstein-russian-hacking-charges/) last week, Putin publicly denied “so-called interference” allegations. Read a transcript of the press conference below: --- > “” --- **Update:** _This post has been updated to include more of a question about who Putin favored in the 2016 election. It was ommitted due to audio issues with the transcript service._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5339848/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-transcript/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5339848/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-transcript/"},"headline":"Read a Transcript of Trump and Putin's Joint Press Conference","datePublished":"2018-07-16T16:19:21.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-24T11:30:14.000Z","description":"President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin today in Helsinki. 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