Why is this suspicious?
After his private, no outsiders meeting with Vladimir Putin, Donald and Vladimir joined others for a news conference at their July 2018 summit. Mr. Trump insisted the meeting be limited to a one-on-one discussion, with no other U.S. officials, even members of the Trump cabinet, present.
The White House has never explained why Mr. Trump has refused to brief other U.S. officials on the details of the meeting. White House officials, military leaders, and even Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats all conceded in the days following the summit that they didn’t fully know what transpired behind closed doors. And now, Mr. trump has refused to provide any notes to Congress.
Politico reported
The White House on Thursday rejected congressional Democrats’ demands for documents relating to President Donald Trump’s private discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin — escalating tensions between the Trump administration and Congress over a crucial piece of Democrats’ oversight ambitions. […]
In his letter to Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), and Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), [White House Counsel Pat Cipollone] cited precedents going back to the George Washington and Bill Clinton administrations to assert Trump’s authority to conduct foreign affairs, and to argue that Congress has no right to information about one-on-one conversations between the president and a foreign leader.
To this day President Jimmy Carter communicates with current and former foreign leaders of many nations and he does that mostly in letters that are put in an envelop and put in a mailbox. Guess what you and Congress have no right to know what President Carter is writing or what those leaders are replying.
Yes Presidents do have private conversations with other world leaders, some are friends and some not so friendly. Yes Harry Truman probably would have liked to know what some of the discussions that Franklin Roosevelt had with both Churchill and Stalin at various meetings, but the man was dead, and other aides did not know. The House has even less oversight than the US Senate since it’s the Senate that approves treaties and the like. This is one area the President can tell all of Congress to go smoke a cigar. And to try to tell uppity Senators and Representatives to please get back to Congress when they overstep and try to do diplomacy without permission from the President. Which makes American government confusing to other governments. Sort of.
You’re absolutely right, Mark! Trump’s conversations with Putin about his real estate developments in Russia involve private business transactions, and are none of the Democrats’ business as long as Trump isn’t trading public policy concessions for private business gain, and we can take Trump’s word of honor for it that he isn’t!