'Clearly she failed': Tillerson says Melania was sent in repeatedly to break up Trump-Putin meeting

First Lady Melania Trump was dispatched to break up the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin when it ran over its allotted 30 minutes.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters however that the two men ignored her and kept talking for another hour, the Washington Examiner said Friday.

"Several times I had to remind the president, people were sticking their heads in the door," the former Exxon-Mobil CEO said at a press briefing after the meeting. "They even sent in the first lady at one point to see if she could get us out of there, and that didn't work either. … We went another hour after she came in to see us, so clearly she failed."

The meeting was originally set to run for 30 minutes. The First Lady was reportedly sent in at the one hour mark and the meeting only ended after Trump and Putin spent two hours and 16 minutes together.

Aides have fretted about leaving Trump alone with the Russian president, who is known as a cunning manipulator. Former spies said earlier this week that Trump's ego would be Putin's biggest ally in bending the U.S. president to his agenda.