US President Donald Trump asserted that his son is a wonderful young man, and that the meeting with a Russian lawyer was not a big deal.

French President Emmanuel Macron (left) and US President Donald Trump at the Elysee Palace on July 13 - Photo: AFP

On July 13th, President Trump arrived in Paris for a visit to France and met with President Emmanuel Macron.

Trump's trip comes amid continued intense domestic pressure related to allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was recently found to have met with a Russian lawyer who offered to provide damaging information to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

In France, Trump continued to defend his son, asserting that the meeting was a "standard" procedure that any politician would follow.

"My son is a wonderful young man. He met with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer, just a Russian lawyer. It was a brief meeting. It was a very quick, fast-paced meeting," CNN quoted Trump as saying alongside French President Macron in Paris.

The “Trump Jr.” affair has been the focus of American media attention in recent days, due to its nature significantly damaging the “clean” image of the relationship between Trump’s campaign and the Russians that the US President is so keen to project.

According to emails released by Trump Jr. himself, lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya described herself to him as "a lawyer for the Russian government," offering to provide information that would contribute to Moscow's efforts to help his father win the election.

But on July 13, Mr. Trump continued to treat the secret meeting as perfectly normal. At the end of his Q&A session with reporters about Trump Jr., Mr. Trump repeated the whole story: that his son was a great young man, and that his son met with "a Russian lawyer," even though nothing actually happened from the meeting.

He added: “I think that from a practical standpoint, most people could attend a meeting like that. Politics isn’t the prettiest story in the world, but it’s very standard… Nothing came of that meeting. Nothing at all. And frankly, I think the press overreacted to what anyone could actually do.”

The Trump administration has many disagreements with the French government under Macron, as well as with the European Union (EU) in general. However, observers believe that this trip to France marks a moment when Trump and Macron will temporarily set aside their differences to focus on the fight against terrorism and finding a political solution for Syria.

Mr. Trump shared his concerns about the terrorist threat facing France and praised France's unity in standing up against "the enemy of humanity."

Regarding the Paris climate agreement, the US President opened the possibility of "reconsidering" the decision not to comply, but left open the possibility that if that doesn't happen, "it's okay," according to AP.

According to TTO