WASHINGTON – President Trump spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday and said Putin was “not looking” to get involved in Venezuela, days after America’s top diplomat blamed Russia for helping keep dictator Nicolas Maduro in power.
“He is not looking at all to get involved in Venezuela other than he’d like to see something positive happen for Venezuela,” Trump said.
“And I feel the same way. We want to get some humanitarian aid. Right now people are starving. They have no water. They have no food,” Trump said, calling it a “very positive conversation.”
But Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a dimmer view of Russia’s meddling in the collapsing country.
On Tuesday, Pompeo pointed a finger at Russia for convincing Maduro to stay in the country instead of boarding a plane to Havana, Cuba.
“He had an airplane on the tarmac, he was ready to leave this morning as we understand it and the Russians indicated he should stay,” Pompeo said on CNN.
Trump’s relay of Putin’s claim also clashes with the president’s own national security adviser, John Bolton, who tweeted earlier Friday, “Maduro is only clinging to power because of the support of Russia and Cuba, the only foreign military forces in Venezuela,” Bolton wrote.
The U.S. is supportive of opposition leader Juan Guaido, whose uprising earlier this week was unsuccessful, and remains in a standoff with Maduro.
On the hour-long call, Trump said he also spoke to Putin about nuclear agreements, North Korea, trade and also, briefly, the Mueller report.
“We’re talking about a nuclear agreement where we make less and they make less and maybe even where we get rid of some of the tremendous firepower that we have right now,” Trump said.
He added that he’d also like to get China involved in a non-proliferation agreement.
“We discussed the possibility of a three-way deal instead,” Trump added.
Trump took questions from reporters in the Oval Office as he hosted the Prime Minister of Slovakia Peter Pellegrini.
The president answered in the affirmative when asked if he and Putin had talked about the election interference outlined in the Mueller report.
“We discussed that – he actually sort of smiled when he said something to the effect that it started out as a mountain and ended up being a mouse,” Trump said.
“But he knew that because he knew there was no collusion whatsoever. So pretty much that’s what it was.”
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley later had to clarify that the call wasn’t a video chat – and when Trump said Putin “smiled” he really meant that he “laughed” and “chuckled.”
Trump also said that he didn’t warn Putin not to meddle in the next U.S. election.
“We didn’t discuss that,” Trump answered, after calling the NBC News reporter shouting the question “very rude.” “Really, we didn’t discuss that.”