"Of course Mr. Trump has to engage with Mr. Putin, given Russia’s position as a nuclear power with a veto in the United Nations Security Council. But at this stage in his presidency, he has so undermined public trust that Americans would be right to wonder whether he is doing so with their best interests at heart."


The Opinion Pages | EDITORIAL

What Did Trump and Putin Tell Each Other?

The White House keeps insisting that an unannounced discussion between President Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia during the recent Group of 20 meeting in Germany is nothing peculiar. In fact, history shows that it is rare for American presidents to meet other leaders, especially adversaries, one-on-one, with little evident preparation and no other American representative present. Mr. Trump’s unique affinity for Mr. Putin is, of course, an additional reason to be concerned.

The encounter occurred July 7 on the sidelines of a banquet attended by the G-20 leaders and their spouses. The president left his chair and walked over to speak with Mr. Putin. Mr. Trump said the conversation lasted 15 minutes, but other reports suggest itmay have been as long as an hour. Earlier in the day, the two men held their first formal bilateral meeting, which ran about two hours and included Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and one interpreter for each side.

Although the formal meeting was announced in advance, the later encounter was confirmed by the White House only after reports surfaced about the astonishment of some of the other guests.

It’s not unusual for leaders at such events to engage in small talk or even have short “pull-asides” in which a substantive issue is raised. If Mr. Trump were to do that with Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain, for instance, it might go unnoticed. Sean Spicer, then the White House spokesman, dismissed the exchange with Mr. Putin as purely social.

But there are several reasons it has raised questions. For one thing, Mr. Trump initiated the conversation without the benefit of his own interpreter or the participation of any of his national security advisers. Only Mr. Putin’s interpreter was on hand. That gives the Russians an advantage: They could assert that Mr. Trump agreed to something or said something that he did not.

Mr. Putin, after all, is an adversary, not an ally. In past administrations, the practice has been to carefully script such top-level exchanges, with aides briefing the president well in advance on what topics need to be addressed and what surprises he needs to be ready to parry. What message did Mr. Trump send to the other G-20 leaders, including America’s strongest allies, by showering Mr. Putin with such attention?

According to The Associated Press, Mr. Trump ignored the warnings of aides like his national security adviser, H. R. McMaster, that Mr. Putin cannot be trusted and that bilateral meetings should be avoided. It may be that Mr. Trump simply acted on impulse.

The stories about what was discussed keep changing. Mr. Spicer told reporters the dinner discussion involved “pleasantries and small talk.” Mr. Trump told The Times the two men discussed “Russian adoptions,” a reference to Mr. Putin’s 2012 decision to suspend American adoptions of Russian orphans. Mr. Putin took that step in response to American sanctions; did the idea of lifting sanctions come up, too? There is even a question about how many times the two leaders met. On Friday, Mr. Lavrov told NBC News, “They might have met even much more than just three times.”

If one were confident that Mr. Trump, like most presidents, possessed a basic knowledge of world events and an ethical compass, his meetings with Mr. Putin would not necessarily cause alarm. Mr. Trump, however, is no ordinary president. Not only is he new to foreign policy, but his associates are under investigation for possible ties to Mr. Putin’s efforts to subvert the election that put Mr. Trump in office. On Friday, The Washington Post, citing “current and former U.S. officials,” reported that Russia’s ambassador to Washington told his superiors that he had discussed campaign related matters with Jeff Sessions during the 2016 presidential race, contrary to Mr. Sessions’s claims.

The administration has disclosed very little, even about the one meeting with Mr. Putin it announced in advance. So just what have these two leaders been discussing at such length? Has Mr. Trump pledged to lift sanctions on Russia, as Mr. Putin has demanded? Or has he offered to return the compounds in Maryland and New York that President Barack Obama said were used for spying and seized from Russia last year in retaliation for election meddling? If so, is he getting anything in return?

Of course Mr. Trump has to engage with Mr. Putin, given Russia’s position as a nuclear power with a veto in the United Nations Security Council. But at this stage in his presidency, he has so undermined public trust that Americans would be right to wonder whether he is doing so with their best interests at heart.