Despite an all-caps warning in his daily briefing on Monday, President Donald Trump ignored his national security advisers and congratulated Russia President Vladimir Putin for winning an election many consider a "sham."
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Trump not only ignored the "DO NOT CONGRATULATE" warning by his top advisers, the president also "chose not to heed talking points from aides instructing him to condemn Putin about the recent poisoning of a former Russian spy in the United Kingdom with a powerful nerve agent."
On Tuesday, after a White House spokesperson indicated the day prior that the president would not be calling his Russian counterpart, Trump himself announced to press that he'd called Putin to congratulate him. Later, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the UK poisoning, which has been condemned in harsh terms by British Prime Minister Theresa May, did not come up during the call.