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Letters

What Trump Said/Says He Meant/Really Thinks

President Trump spoke with members of Congress at the White House on Tuesday.Credit...Tom Brenner for The New York Times

To the Editor:

Re “A Besieged Trump Says He Misspoke on Vote Meddling” (front page, July 18):

President Trump insists he misspoke in Helsinki when he sided with Vladimir Putin’s denials of Russian interference in the 2016 election. He now says he meant all along to say he supports the American intelligence assessments that Russia did engage in a cyberwar campaign against our country.

O.K., Mr. President, we will give you a mulligan on this one. But the question for you then becomes: “What are you going to do about it?” If you now acknowledge Russia’s actions, you have a responsibility to punish Russia for its past actions and take strong measures to prevent any future cyberattacks on our nation.

We look forward to your follow-up to your “correction” of the record regarding Helsinki.

LARRY DEWITT, TUCSON

To the Editor:

Up to now, President Trump’s response to his statements that play badly has been to say, “I only meant it as a joke.” Now he’s added to his repertoire: “Did I say that? I meant to say exactly the opposite of that.”

So when the president makes a statement, we can believe that it reflects his true thoughts; or we can think he may be joking; or maybe he meant to say the opposite of what he said.

I’m glad we have that cleared up.

STEPHEN POLIT, BELMONT, MASS.

To the Editor:

Regarding President Trump’s backtracking: He looked like a hostage reading a statement. It is obvious when a hostage is being forced to read and doesn’t subscribe to what he or she is reading. What was the point of his being forced to read a statement that the whole world, and Mr. Trump himself, knew was false?

EDWARD KISSEL, BOCA RATON, FLA.

To the Editor:

President Trump’s performance in Helsinki made a few things clear. First, Mr. Trump does not understand that he is part of the government; he talks about the Justice Department, the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. as if they were entities he does not represent, nor has anything to do with.

Second, he has no idea what the job of president involves, starting with his sworn obligation to defend the United States from enemies foreign and domestic. In fact, he is not working for us; he is working for himself.

Third, while some Republicans have expressed outrage, their reaction is to pass some sort of resolution reaffirming their confidence in our nation’s security services. We do not need resolutions; we need Congress to act responsibly and remove Mr. Trump from the White House. There is no need to wait for Robert Mueller to finish his investigation; we have a crisis that needs to be dealt with now.

GEORGE LOISOS, ALAMEDA, CALIF.

To the Editor:

Would The New York Times please stop using the term “meddling” to describe the Russians’ cyberattack on our elections? The term profoundly diminishes the severity of what has occurred and allows people to think dismissively about it. “Meddling” is minor interference — what two old biddies do when they don’t like the young man their niece is marrying. It is not a geopolitical attack with enormous national consequences.

By the way, I’m an old biddy.

DALE ALMOND, BLOOMFIELD, N.Y.

To the Editor:

Re “Mr. Trump Parrots Russia’s Leader” (editorial, July 17):

You write that it is a mystery why the president “is unwilling to call out Russian perfidy.” Without a full disclosure of President Trump’s taxes and financial dealings, the public has no way of knowing if Mr. Trump is furthering his own self-interest or the country’s in his conversations with Vladimir Putin.

If we are truly to have checks and balances in our government, Congress must demand a complete accounting of Mr. Trump’s financial affairs and any financial ties he has to Russian interests.

ELLEN A. BRUCE, BROOKLINE, MASS.

To the Editor:

A vivid memory of the 2016 presidential debates: Hillary Clinton accusing Donald Trump of being Vladimir Putin’s puppet; Donald Trump yelling back, “No, you’re the puppet!”

Well, now we know.

EDWARD SHERMAN, NEW YORK

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: What Trump Said/Says He Meant/Thinks. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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