For all we’ve learned about his ties to Russia, Donald Trump’s continued paeans to Vladimir Putin remain the most puzzling aspect of his presidency. In November, Trump made headlines when he told reporters that Putin “said he didn’t meddle [in the 2016 election] . . . and I believe, I really believe, that when he tells me that, he means it.” Since then, his administration has quietly taken some steps to curb Moscow’s influence, approving new arms sales to Ukraine and issuing sanctions against Russians involved in the aforementioned meddling. Trump himself, however, appears as enamored as ever with his counterpart in Moscow, courting controversy again on Tuesday when he boasted of having a “very good call” with Putin about the Russian president’s dubious re-election.

Apparently, even Trump’s national security advisers were against him offering his kudos. In preparation for his call with Putin, Trump’s aides included a section in his briefing materials that said, in all capital letters, “DO NOT CONGRATULATE,” officials familiar with the call told The Washington Post. The president also did not broach the topic of the recent poisonings of a former Russian spy and his daughter in the United Kingdom with a powerful nerve agent—an attack both the British and U.S. governments have blamed on Russia—as he was reportedly instructed to do in his briefing notes.

Instead, Trump gushed about the call during a press appearance with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “We’ll probably be meeting in the not-too-distant future,” he added, of Putin. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended the conversation, telling reporters on Tuesday, in reference to the sanctions the U.S. leveled against Moscow last week, “We’ve been very clear in the actions that we’ve taken that we’re going to be tough on Russia, particularly when it comes to areas that we feel where they’ve stepped out of place.” When asked about the validity of the Russian election, in which Putin won 76 percent of the vote, and which foreign-policy experts have dismissed as rigged, Sanders responded, “We don’t get to dictate how other countries operate.”

Administration officials offered another defense: perhaps the president simply hadn’t read his notes. One senior White House official noted to the Post that National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster had not verbally told Trump not to congratulate Putin during his briefing with the president. And another official told The New York Times that while the note cards provided to the president did include the instruction not to congratulate the Russian leader, Trump did not read them before the conversation.

Nevertheless, lawmakers were swift to criticize the exchange. Arguably the sharpest rebuke of Trump came from Senator John McCain, who wrote on Twitter, “An American president does not lead the Free World by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections. And by doing so with Vladimir Putin, President Trump insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election.” Others offered more muted responses. “I wouldn’t read much into it,” said Senator Bob Corker, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “The president can call whomever he chooses,” but added, “When I look at a Russian election, what I see is a lack of credibility in tallying the results. I’m always reminded of the election they used to have in almost every communist country, where whoever the dictator was at the moment always got a huge percentage of the vote.”

Perhaps more important than the call itself is the fact that the contents of the president’s briefing materials were leaked to the national press. Per Axios, the leak has unnerved the White House, leaving Trump and top officials in the administration “furious and rattled,” as it “could only have come from a small group of people, each of whom is trusted with sensitive national secrets.” The episode was reminiscent of when the full transcripts of Trump’s calls with the leaders of Mexico and Australia were released to the press last year. The fact that such information was released, Tom Nichols, a former Senate aide and never-Trumper tweeted, crystallizes the backstabbing nature of the Trump White House. “I would argue represents a breach of trust between the president and his advisers,” Nichols wrote. “The president has the right to ignore his advisers, however stupid that may be. The advisers do not have a right to retaliate by leaking their communications with him.”