GREAT FALLS: US President Donald Trump insisted Thursday he will be "prepared" for his upcoming meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, joking about journalists who question his lack of experience.
"They're going, "Will President Trump be prepared? You know, President Putin is KGB,' and this and that," Trump told a rally in Great Falls, Montana.
"Will I be prepared? Totally prepared. I've been preparing for this stuff my whole life," Trump said.
"I might even end up having a good relationship" with Putin, said the real estate mogul, who also denounced "75 percent" of journalists as "downright dishonest."
Trump has been reaching out to Putin even as the US leader's ties with some of his western allies have become strained.
The planned July 16 head-to-head between the US and Russian leaders will follow a delicate NATO summit in Brussels.
Trump has expressed scorn for the alliance and is expected to upbraid European NATO members for not spending enough on their own defense.