--- title: Trump Allegedly Hid Details From Putin Meetings: Report description: U.S. President Donald Trump said he "couldn’t care less" if details from his conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin were released. canonical: https://time.com/5501428/trump-putin-meeting-details/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-01-13T14:23:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T22:29:14.969Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Allegedly Hid Details From Putin Meetings: Report og:description: The President denies the allegations og:url: https://time.com/5501428/trump-putin-meeting-details/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2e3b125076642dc1/6989432abc6cfce7093e7e83/trump-putin-meeting.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: trump-putin-meeting og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Allegedly Hid Details From Putin Meetings: Report twitter:description: The President denies the allegations twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2e3b125076642dc1/6989432abc6cfce7093e7e83/trump-putin-meeting.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Allegedly Hid Details From Putin Meetings: Report > 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 [Alyza Sebenius and Michael Sin / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Alyza Sebenius and Michael Sin / Bloomberg Contributor Jan 13, 2019 2:23 PM UTC  Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump shake hands before a meeting in Helsinki, on July 16, 2018. Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump shake hands before a meeting in Helsinki, on July 16, 2018. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI—AFP/Getty Images by [Alyza Sebenius and Michael Sin / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Alyza Sebenius and Michael Sin / Bloomberg Contributor Jan 13, 2019 2:23 PM UTC (Bloomberg) — U.S. President Donald Trump said he “couldn’t care less” if details from his conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin were released. Trump was responding to a Washington Post report, which said he went to great lengths to hide details of his discussions with Putin. Trump took possession of his interpreter’s notes after a 2017 meeting in Hamburg and instructed the linguist not to discuss the matter with other administration officials, the Post said, citing current and former U.S. officials. “We were talking about Israel and securing Israel and lots of others things,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Saturday. “It was a great conversation. I’m not keeping anything under wraps.” Representative Eliot L. Engel, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said it will hold hearings on the “mysteries swirling” around Trump’s relationship with the Russian president. “Every time Trump meets with Putin, the country is told nothing,” Engel said in a statement. “The Foreign Affairs Committee will seek to get to the bottom of it.” U.S. officials only learned of Trump’s actions when two aides sought information from the interpreter beyond a readout from then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the Post said. The officials said there is no detailed record, including in classified files, of Trump’s face-to-face interactions with Putin at five locations from the past two years, the newspaper reported. “I mean it’s so ridiculous, these people make it up,” Trump said on Fox News, adding that he’s been tougher on Russia than the last three or four presidents. A White House spokesman contacted by the Washington Post who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the administration has sought to “improve the relationship with Russia.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5501428/trump-putin-meeting-details/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5501428/trump-putin-meeting-details/"},"headline":"President Trump Allegedly Hid Details From Putin Meetings: Report","datePublished":"2019-01-13T14:23:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T22:29:14.969Z","description":"The President denies the allegations","url":"https://time.com/5501428/trump-putin-meeting-details/","keywords":["russia","White House","Bloomberg","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2e3b125076642dc1/6989432abc6cfce7093e7e83/trump-putin-meeting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alyza Sebenius and Michael Sin / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2e3b125076642dc1/6989432abc6cfce7093e7e83/trump-putin-meeting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"trump-putin-meeting","caption":"FINLAND-US-RUSSIA-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY-SUMMIT","creditText":"BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI—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/russia/","name":"russia"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5501428/trump-putin-meeting-details/","name":"President Trump Allegedly Hid Details From Putin Meetings: Report"}}]}] ```