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WASHINGTON, U.S. – The U.S. President Donald Trump’s response to the fierce criticism he drew at the end of his summit with the Russian President Vladimir Putin last week in Helsinki was the complete opposite of what many would have expected.

After wrapping up his first summit with Putin in Finland last week, Trump drew fierce bipartisan criticism, with critics labelling his joint press conference with the Russian President as being “treasonous.”

At his maiden summit with Putin last Monday, Trump openly questioned his own intelligence agencies’ conclusions that Russia was to blame for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election to Trump’s benefit.

Trump also seemed to accept Putin’s insistence that Russia played no role in the American election and that the accusations against it are all false.

What irked American lawmakers and Trump’s critics further was that, after holding talks with Putin, Trump declared, “I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”

Trump pointed out that he and Putin “spent a great deal of time” discussing allegations of Russian election meddling but, at the end of it, the U.S. President declined the opportunity to denounce Putin for the interference efforts.

He repeatedly denounced Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference efforts, and even though American intelligence officials have warned that such interference efforts are ongoing – Trump said, “I don’t see any reason why Russia would interfere in the 2016 election.”

He declared, “We ran a brilliant campaign and that’s why I’m president.”

Then, 24 hours after the summit, and faced with growing bipartisan condemnation over his statements, Trump did a u-turn and said that he actually just “misspoke.”

Trump argued that he “had misspoken” in Helsinki and actually meant to say that Russia “did have reason to meddle in the U.S. election.”

The U.S. President said, “I thought that I made myself very clear, but having just reviewed the transcript…I realized that there is a need for some clarification. The sentence should have been…’I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia.’”

Further, the president also said that he actually backed the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Moscow interfered in his 2016 Presidential race and stressed that he had “full faith and support” for the American intelligence community.

He said, “I have felt very strongly that while Russia’s actions had no impact at all on the outcome of the election, let me be totally clear in saying…that I accept our American intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place.”

Trump added however, “Could be other people also, there’s a lot of people out there.”

Faced with a crisis that threatened his seat of power, advisors would have ideally suggested maintaining some distance with the controversial Russian leader until the criticism dies down – however, Trump did the complete opposite. 

Defying critics and supporters, Trump made his most belligerent moves, declaring that he will host have another meeting with Putin.

Trump said that he is “looking forward” to meeting again with Putin, to “begin implementing” issues they discussed during their summit in Helsinki.

Then, he continued his usual attack on the media, dubbing it the “enemy of the people,” and accused the media of distorting the summit and pining for a confrontation between the U.S. and Russia.

In a series of tweets, Trump argued his summit with Putin “was a great success.”

He wrote, “The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media. I look forward to our second meeting so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed, including stopping terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear proliferation, cyber attacks, trade, Ukraine, Middle East peace, North Korea and more.”

He added, “There are many answers, some easy and some hard, to these problems…but they can ALL be solved!”

The White House also released a statement that said Trump has asked that Putin be invited to Washington this fall.

In a tweet, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders added that during Trump’s visit with Putin in Helsinki, Finland, on Monday, Trump “agreed to ongoing working level dialogue between the two security council staffs” of the United States and Russia.

Sanders added in her tweet that Trump had asked National Security Advisor John Bolton “to invite President Putin to Washington in the fall and those discussions are already underway.”

She wrote, “In Helsinki, @POTUS agreed to ongoing working level dialogue between the two security council staffs. President Trump asked @Ambjohnbolton to invite President Putin to Washington in the fall and those discussions are already underway.”

The invitation however, sparked a fresh outcry and amid growing unease among lawmakers, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that Putin would not be invited to address Congress or visit the Capitol if he accepted Trump’s invitation.

On Wednesday, national security adviser John Bolton said that Trump would postpone his second meeting with the Russian President until next year after the federal probe into Russian election meddling is over.

Bolton said in a statement, “The president believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so we’ve agreed that it will be after the first of the year.”

Earlier this week, the Kremlin said that although Washington and Moscow agreed there was a need for another Putin-Trump meeting, Russia had not yet begun any practical preparations for a new meeting.

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov said in a statement, “There are other options (to meet) which our leaders can look at,” citing a meeting of G20 leaders in Argentina which starts at the end of November.