Russian president Vladimir Putin said he has no compromising dirt on U.S. president Donald Trump and again dismissed baseless speculation by the anti-Trump media desperate to undermine and embarrass the billionaire.

“We don’t have anything on him, and there can’t be anything on him,” Putin told Fox News host Chris Wallace. Putin said the same thing just hours earlier at his joint press conference with President Trump in Helsinki.

Putin said the question is ridiculous and illogical, pointing out that Russia simply does not have the financial resources or manpower to spy on every rich American businessman who visits the country.

The media have repeatedly suggested — without a shred of evidence — that Putin has compromising dirt on Trump. The liberal press has fomented this reckless speculation because President Trump is not declaring war on Russia, a superpower that has nuclear weapons.

Putin said before Donald Trump became president, he was not on the Russian government’s radar. When Trump visited Russia in 2013 to attend the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, Putin said he had no interest in spying on Trump because it didn’t occur to him that Trump would ever become president.

“I don’t want to insult President Trump when I say this — and it may come off as rude — but before he announced that he would run for president, he was of no interest to us,” Putin said. “He was a rich person, but there are a lot of rich people in the United States. He was in the construction business. He organized beauty pageants, but it never occurred to anyone that he would think of running for president.”

Putin said more than more than 500 wealthy businessmen attended the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in 2013, and if the Russian government were looking for a patsy, there were bigger targets than Trump.

“Pretty much every one of them was a major industrial tycoon of greater scale than President Trump,” Putin said. “Do you think that our Special Services actually organized surveillance on each and every of them?”

Putin noted that the Russian government doesn’t waste its resources or time randomly spying on Americans.

“Unlike the United States, we don’t do this. We don’t have enough resources,” Putin said. “We don’t have enough manpower to organize this total state of control. That’s not part of our plans. And it’s clear that we did nothing of that kind of against Mr. Trump.”

The media has slammed President Trump for not being hostile and rude to Vladimir Putin at their first official meeting. This is their only “evidence” that Putin has dirt on Trump. Putin again dismissed this media-created narrative.

“Why should this come as a surprise?” Putin asked. “Was it worth going all the way to Helsinki just to insult one another? It’s not exactly the diplomatic standard. There’s no need to go and meet personally if you just want to insult the other person. We met to try to find a way to improve our relationship and not aggravate or completely destroy it.”

Besides, as President Trump has repeatedly pointed out: If there were any dirt on Trump, it would already have been leaked to the media.

Meanwhile, after more than a year, special counsel Robert Mueller has produced no evidence of collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.

Maybe Putin had dirt on Obama. That’s the only way to explain Obama’s meekness and fecklessness in response to Russian meddling in U.S. domestic affairs.

Or maybe Putin has dirt on Hillary Clinton, with whom he has socialized numerous times.

Why weren't people mad at Hillary meeting with an "authoritarian dictator who murders journalists"? Or was Putin super chill a few years ago? #TreasonSummit pic.twitter.com/QtEHdiHW2p — Rob (@philosophrob) July 16, 2018

#TrumpPutinSummit Putin offered to allow Mueller to come to Russia to question the 12 indicted Russians. Putin called out Hillary for taking $400 million from Bill Browder's Russian group. Putin threw George Soros under the bus. Watch the Democrats freak the hell out cc @POTUS pic.twitter.com/duiW9WfKiJ — Geoff De Weaver ?? (@geoff_deweaver) July 16, 2018

Or maybe Putin has something on this clown, who cheerfully shared coffee and doughnuts with him.

@SenSchumer @[email protected]@[email protected]@ABC- Chuck can condemn POTUS for dealing w/ Putin but we learned wealthy Russian gave Hillary 400 Million 4 Clinton Foundation! Also, Mueller dealt with Russian billionaire when head of FBI as well as in Uranium One Deal. False outrage Chuck! pic.twitter.com/djacLMnoyd — Vivian Hackler (@vrebhack) July 16, 2018

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