‘A nothing burger.’

That was the Trump camp’s initial derisory reaction to New York Times allegations that Donald Trump Jr. secretly met with a Russian government lawyer to discuss acquiring ‘dirt’ on Hillary Clinton.

The Urban Dictionary describes a ‘nothing burger’ as ‘something lame, dead-end, a dud, insignificant; especially something with high expectations that turns out to be average, pathetic or overhyped.’

Hmm.

One thing I think we can now all agree on is that this story is most definitely not a ‘nothing burger’.

In fact, it’s a giant, flame-grilled, piping hot Triple Whopper leaking all over the place and packed with juicy extras.

Trump camp’s initial derisory reaction to allegations that Donald Trump Jr. secretly met with a Russian government lawyer called it a ‘nothing burger' - but really it’s a giant, flame-grilled, piping hot Triple Whopper leaking all over the place and packed with juicy extras

And it could yet prove to be the smoking gun Trump’s critics have been yearning for since the Russia connection first became an obsession for the US media.

It would be wise for the White House to take this development very, very seriously.

Until this week there has been zero hard evidence that either President Trump or any of his campaign team ever colluded with Russians in any way to help win the election.

Now, there is direct hard evidence that very strongly suggests some form of Russian collusion was at the very least considered.

And it’s come from a source that even the President would never describe as ‘Fake News’ – his own son.

Donald Jr. pre-empted the NYT by publishing his own email chain surrounding the Russian meeting the paper had uncovered.

Dynamite: Donald Jr. pre-empted the NYT by publishing his own email chain surrounding the Russian meeting the paper had uncovered. They are damning

Like most people, I suspect, I read it and began to slowly whistle.

The emails are dynamite.

First, they reveal Donald Jr. set up a meeting last summer, at the height of the campaign, with someone he believed to be a Russian government attorney who was flying over from Moscow specifically to meet him.

Second, they reveal he knew the attorney was supposedly going to reveal ‘some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia’ that ‘would be very useful to your father’.

Third, they reveal the material, which was stated to come directly from the Crown Prosecutor of Russia, was ‘very high level and sensitive but was ‘part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr Trump.’

They even reveal he copied Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner in on the whole exchange

Fourth, they reveal he copied his father’s two closest aides, Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, into the email exchange and invited them to attend the meeting – which they duly did.

Wow, wow, wow, and wow again.

It is hard to imagine a more damning series of admissions – particularly coming from someone who until now has always emphatically denied such a meeting ever occurred.

In March, 2017, Donald Jr. told the NYT:

‘Did I meet with people that were Russian?’ he said. ‘I’m sure I did. But none that were set up… and certainly none that I was representing the campaign in any way, shape or form.’

Now we know from his own words that he DID set up a campaign-related meeting with someone he thought was a Kremlin lawyer offering him dirt on Hillary to help his father and influence the election.

In an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity last night, Donald Jr. attributed his failure to remember the meeting as the fog of frenzied campaign war, and insisted he’d done nothing wrong.

But it is surely stretching credulity to say you ‘forgot’ a meeting like that, especially when Russian collusion is the single biggest news story of your father’s presidency.

‘My son Donald did a good job last night,’ tweeted President Trump this morning. ‘He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in history. Sad!’

This, to put it mildly, is protective nepotism running riot.

The ‘open and transparent’ thing for Donald Jr. to have done was to have alerted the FBI the moment a foreign national tried to offer him damaging information on a US election candidate, as it breaches the strict laws forbidding such assistance or the acceptance of anything of value that might impact an election.

The open and transparent thing for Don Jr to do when he got the email from Rob Goldstone, left, offering information straight from the Crown Prosecutor of Russia, via what turned out to be lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, right, was call the FBI

Of course, there is no evidence Donald Jr. acted on any of the information, and he denies it.

It also muddies the waters that the information concerned was supposed to be ‘proof’ that HILLARY colluded with Russians. Would it have been justified to break the law to expose alleged treasonable illegality by someone else? It’s an interesting question.

Also, the attorney concerned has now said she doesn’t work for the Russian government anyway.

So none of this is clear-cut.

But if there was genuinely nothing to hide, than why, when confronted by the NYT on July 8 about the existence of the meeting, did Donald Jr. fail to mention the real reason for it?

‘We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government,’ he said in a statement.

That may well have been discussed, but that was not, as we now know from the emails, why he held the meeting.

The NYT, perhaps deliberately holding stuff back to trap Donald Jr. into making false or incomplete statements, then revealed they knew the meeting was to discuss dirt on Hillary.

Donald Jr. finally admitted this had been discussed but said the attorney’s claims were ‘vague, ambiguous and made no sense’ and said ‘no details or supporting information were provided’.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders added: ‘I would certainly say Don Jr. did not collude with anybody to influence the election.’

All of which may well be true.

But that doesn’t make these emails any less significant or damaging.

What they prove is that Donald Jr. set up a meeting with someone he believed to be a Russian government lawyer to receive what he thought would be damaging information about his father’s election rival.

Whichever way you dress that up, it indicates at least a desire to collude with Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin in damaging Hillary.

Legal experts whose opinion I trust, like CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin, do not believe what he did was necessarily criminal.

And cries from some senior Democrats of ‘Treason!’ are absurd, at least based on what we know so far.

But Donald Trump Jr. – whom I’ve known for a decade and always found very straightforward and likable - was indisputably shockingly naïve and dumb for such a well-educated and street-smart guy.

Now the big question is what did the President know about any of this, and when did he know it?

Donald Trump Jr. – whom I’ve known for a decade and always found very straightforward and likable - was naïve and dumb. Now the big question is what did the President know about any of this, and when did he know it?

Donald Jr. is very close to his dad and has always been strident in his public defence of him.

When Donald Sr. won the election, Donald Jr. sent me an email thanking me for not joining the hysterical liberal mob in perpetually howling with outrage about his father.

‘I know it’s not easy to come out and say that Trump is anything but Satan,’ he wrote.

No, it’s not.

But what makes it even more difficult is when, after months of denials about any meetings or collusion between the Trump campaign team and Russian officials, I see irrefutable evidence that such a meeting did take place and collusion was considered.

‘Remember, when you hear the words ‘sources say’ from the Fake Media,’ tweeted President Trump this morning, ‘often times those sources are made up and don’t exist.’

There’s just one problem with that statement when considering this particular scandal: the source is his own flesh and blood.

The US media will now quadruple their efforts to nail the Trumps over Russian collusion, and they have every right to do so.

This is no longer the ‘greatest Witch Hunt in history’, as the President has repeatedly claimed.

It’s a legitimate investigation that just saw a lot of smoke turn into furious fire.