It seems to me that the New York Times and Eileen Sullivan are being willfully tendentious here: “Trump Admits to Russia ‘Helping Me to Get Elected.” In the context of the tweet — and keeping in mind that the president is not exactly what you would call a master of the English language—it seems clear enough that Trump here is responding to and rejecting the claim that Russia helped him get elected, not confessing the fact that Russia helped him get elected.