Trump White House enters 6th month facing allegations & low approval

World Today

Top envoys from Russia and the U.S. have met in Washington. This comes as U.S. President Donald Trump – now almost six-months in office – faced new questions about possible Russian meddling in the election that got him there.

And a new poll suggests that more and more Americans think Trump’s doing a poor job. CGTN’s Roee Ruttenberg has that story.

U.S. President Donald Trump launched Made in America Week, a close-to-his-heart campaign meant to get businesses to make their goods in the U.S.

“Restoring American manufacturing will not only restore our wealth, it will restore our pride and pride in ourselves. It will revitalize our independence and it will rebuild the bonds of kinship between our communities and our citizens,” said President Trump.

But all things Russia continue to dominate the ‘America first’ President’s first half year in office. In December, outgoing-President Barack Obama seized two Russian compounds in the U.S. over allegations that Moscow meddled into the American election to help Trump.

“It’s like a daylight robbery, they act like bandits on the road. What is it – to take away property which belongs to us according to a bilateral inter-governmental ratified document? And in order to get it back they act according to the principle “what’s mine is mine, what’s yours – we will share”. Dissent people do not behave this way,” complained Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister.

Russia wants the properties back immediately and without preconditions. If the White House complies, it may look like quid-pro-quo for the meddling. If it doesn’t, Russia says it will retaliate.

Meanwhile, the administration tried to distance the President from a meeting between his son, his son-in-law, his campaign chairman, a Russian lawyer and a Russian-American lobbyist. “I’m one of the counsel for the President of the United States, who was not involved in the meeting and not aware of the meeting, so, from our perspective, my answer stands. And that is the president was not engaged in this,” claimed Jay Sekulow, a member of Trump’s legal team.

Trump’s political foes aren’t buying it. “Frankly, it’s a little bit unbelievable that neither the son or son-in-law ever shared that information with their dad, the candidate,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA.

And new polling shows record low approval ratings for President Trump nearly 6 months into office. Just over one-third of Americans surveyed approve of the job the President is doing. Close to 60 percent say they disapprove. And almost half say U.S. leadership in the world has gotten weaker under Trump.

President Trump dismissed the poll numbers. He said that the polls were inaccurate during the election and they are not to be believed now.