The following article by Ashley Parker, Philip Rucker, Josh Dawsey and Carol D. Leonnig was posted on the Washington Post website July 21, 2018:
Over the course of three days, President Trump commented on Russian election interference in ways that repeatedly contradicted his own intelligence officials. Credit: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post
Executive time began early on Thursday, just after sunrise.
Feeling exasperated and feisty as he awoke in the White House residence, President Trump fired off his grievances on Twitter about how the media had been covering his Helsinki summit. And, refusing to be cowed, Trump gave national security adviser John Bolton an order: to schedule a second summit and officially invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit Washington.
The two presidents had already discussed the likelihood of a follow-up meeting, but at Trump’s direction Thursday morning, Bolton sprang into action to make it official, making an overture to the Kremlin. By midafternoon the White House announced that planning was underway for a fall summit in Washington.