Donald Trump stepped up his defence of his eldest son yesterday, saying Donald Trump Jr had done nothing wrong in meeting a Russian lawyer to get information about Hillary Clinton during the US presidential campaign and arguing that “most people would have taken that meeting”.
“My son is a wonderful young man who took a meeting with a Russian lawyer — not a Russian government lawyer but a Russian lawyer,” Mr Trump said at a press conference alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. “Most people would have taken that meeting. It is called opposition research . . . that is very standard in politics.”
The comments came during his first visit to Paris since his election and a week since he attended the G20 in Hamburg, where critics charged that he was isolated on the global stage. He has developed what has appeared to be a rivalry with Mr Macron, who engaged in a white-knuckled handshake in their first meeting at a May Nato summit.