--- description: President Trump appeared on Fox News for his first interview following a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin title: Trump: Mueller Probe Drove a 'Wedge' Between U.S. and Russia image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt292c816f74779cfe/69893580e76ad26f1d63282c/gettyimages-1000225262.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Donald Trump](/tag/donald-trump/) ## Donald Trump Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # President Trump Tells Fox News 'I Think We're Doing Really Well With Russia as of Today' by [Casey Quackenbush](/author/casey-quackenbush/) ## Casey Quackenbush Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 17, 2018 2:56 AM CUT  President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands during a joint press conference after their summit in Helsinki, Finland on July 16, 2018. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands during a joint press conference after their summit in Helsinki, Finland on July 16, 2018.Chris McGrath—Getty Images by [Casey Quackenbush](/author/casey-quackenbush/) ## Casey Quackenbush Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 17, 2018 2:56 AM CUT Following a one-on-one summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki Monday, President Donald Trump again placed the blame on U.S. investigators for damaging ties between Washington and Moscow. During an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, his first since the summit, Trump said a federal investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election has “driven a wedge between us and Russia,” referring to the probe led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as a “witch hunt.” “Maybe we’ve just knocked down that wedge, but it has driven a wedge and President Putin said that,” Trump said, claiming that the meeting with his Russian counterpart made progress toward repairing the relationship. “I think we’re doing really well with Russia as of today, I think we were doing horribly before today,” Trump said. “I mean horribly, dangerously.” > [](https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/1019034741020987392) The Helsinki summit took place just days after the Justice Department [charged 12 Russian intelligence officials](http://time.com/5338172/rod-rosenstein-russian-hacking-charges/ "undefined") with hacking the Democratic National Committee’s emails, Hillary Clinton’s campaign and state election systems. So far the investigation has brought 191 criminal charges against 32 people and three Russian companies. At a 46-minute joint press conference with Putin after the summit, Trump said Putin strongly [denied the charges](http://time.com/5339830/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-helsinki-meddling/ "undefined") and said he didn’t see “any reason” why the Kremlin would have interfered in the American electoral process. “I think it’s a shame… we’re talking about all of these different things and we get questions on the witch hunt,” Trump said. “And I don’t think the people out in the country buy it, but the reporters like to give it a shot. I thought that President Putin was very, very strong.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5340533/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-hannity-interview/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5340533/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-hannity-interview/"},"headline":"President Trump Tells Fox News 'I Think We're Doing Really Well With Russia as of Today'","datePublished":"2018-07-17T02:56:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:52:10.029Z","description":"President Trump appeared on Fox News for his first interview following a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin","url":"https://time.com/5340533/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-hannity-interview/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt292c816f74779cfe/69893580e76ad26f1d63282c/gettyimages-1000225262.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Casey Quackenbush","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/casey-quackenbush/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt292c816f74779cfe/69893580e76ad26f1d63282c/gettyimages-1000225262.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump And President Putin Hold A Joint Press Conference After Summit","caption":"President Trump And President Putin Hold A Joint Press Conference After Summit","creditText":"Chris McGrath—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/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5340533/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-hannity-interview/","name":"President Trump Tells Fox News 'I Think We're Doing Really Well With Russia as of Today'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Trump Comments on Hillary Clinton's Servers and Email During Press Conference","description":"Trump Comments on Hillary Clinton's Servers and Email During Press Conference","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/aKdGmDGY/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-07-16T16:25:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aKdGmDGY.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5340533/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-hannity-interview/","duration":"PT1M29S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5340533/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-hannity-interview/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```