Political scientist shreds Trump’s ‘galactically stupid’ — and suspicious — Putin meeting

A political scientist wondered what President Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin needed to discuss in private, without a written record of their conversation.

Daniel Drezner, a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that the one-on-one meeting planned for next week in Helsinki was highly problematic and fraught with risk.

"It is truly galactically stupid," Drezner said. "What I really want to hear from the White House is exactly why there should not be a notetaker. It is not like the notetaker is going to leak the contents of the meeting."

Drezner said the president had a habit of speaking to other foreign leaders without assistance or input from his staff, which he said was problematic even when talking to allies.

"You want a notetaker just to make sure that everyone is on the same page," he said.

Drezner pointed out that Trump and Putin had talked privately for about an hour at last July's G20 meeting, and he wondered why the two leaders kept pursuing those secret meetings.

"I really want to know what exactly is so important that Donald Trump needs to talk to Vladimir Putin without any other Americans in the room," he said.