US President Donald Trump insists his son is a wonderful young man, and that meeting with a Russian lawyer is no big deal.

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

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

Mr. Trump's trip took place in the context of continuing to face great pressure from within the country, related to the suspicion of seeking help from the Russians in the 2016 US presidential election. Mr. Trump's eldest son - Mr. Donald Trump Jr. - was recently discovered to have met with a Russian lawyer who offered to provide information detrimental to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

In France, Mr. Trump continued to defend his son, asserting that the meeting was a “standard” part of the job that anyone in politics could do.

“My son is a wonderful young man. He met with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer, a Russian lawyer. It was a brief meeting. It was a very quick, quick meeting,” Trump said alongside French President Macron in Paris, CNN reported.

The “Trump Jr.” affair has been the focus of the American press in recent days, because its nature significantly damages the “clean” image of the relationship between Mr. Trump’s election campaign and the Russians that the US President is very keen to demonstrate.

According to emails released by Trump Jr. himself, the then-lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya described herself to Trump’s son 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 a very normal thing. At the end of his response to reporters’ questions about Trump Jr., Mr. Trump repeated the whole story: His son is a wonderful young man, and his son met with “a Russian lawyer,” while nothing happened from that meeting.

“I think from a practical standpoint, most anyone could have attended a meeting like that,” he added. “Politics isn’t the most glamorous story in the world, but it’s very standard… Nothing came of that meeting. Nothing. And I honestly think the press has overstated what anyone could have done.”

The Trump administration has many conflicts with the French government of Macron, as well as the European Union (EU) in general. However, observers believe that this trip to France is a time for Trump and Macron to temporarily put aside their differences to focus on the fight against terrorism and finding a political solution for Syria.

Mr Trump shared the threat of terrorism to France, and praised the country for standing up together against “the enemies of humanity”.

Regarding the Paris climate change agreement, the US President opened up the possibility of “rethinking” the decision not to comply, but left open that if that doesn’t happen “that’s fine,” according to AP.

According to TTO