2018 World Cup: President Trump Congratulates Champion France and Host Russia

President Donald Trump congratulated France for their World Cup win on Sunday, but he also congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin for hosting it.

President Trump took to Twitter shortly after the World Cup final between France and Russia was over. The French national team secured a decisive win with a final score of 4-2. The pivotal match was held in Moscow. Russia, and President Trump showered Putin with praise for hosting the event.

“Congratulations to France, who played extraordinary soccer, on winning the 2018 World Cup. Additionally, congratulations to President Putin and Russia for putting on a truly great World Cup Tournament — one of the best ever!” he tweeted.

The tweet comes just a couple of short days after 12 Russian intelligence officers were indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller for allegedly interfering in the 2016 presidential election.

Mueller’s investigation turned up sufficient evidence to try 11 of the operatives with conspiring to hack into the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee networks, according to a report by The Hill. Meanwhile, the final officer is facing charges of conspiring to hack into election systems.

In spite of all of this, President Trump has yet to condemn Putin or his government’s alleged attempts to influence the United State’s political system. His compliments on the World Cup come days before the two are scheduled to meet face to face, though he told CBS News that he has “low expectations” for the meeting.

“I don’t expect anything. I frankly don’t expect — I go in with very low expectations,” President Trump said. “I think that getting along with Russia is a good thing. But it’s possible we won’t.”

The World Cup match was disrupted for about 60 seconds when protesters took the field to condemn Putin and his practices within Russia. The feminist punk band Pussy Riot has taken credit for the display, which featured four people running onto the field in suits and peaked caps. One made it as far as center field, and a French player apparently high-fived them. However, they were all dragged away by security.

As the investigation into Russian hacking of the U.S. election reaches a boiling point, President Trump continues to cry out against it as a “witch hunt” against him personally. He has repeatedly denounced Mueller’s team for having nothing to go on, though when the new indictments came out this week he had a simple response.

“The stories you heard about the 12 Russians yesterday took place during the Obama Administration, not the Trump Administration,” he tweeted. “Why didn’t they do something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September, before the Election?”