Putin for his decision to force the U.S. to cut 755 diplomatic jobs from its mission in Russia in response to the sanctions. “I’m very thankful that he let go of a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll…. We’ll save a lot of money,” he told reporters, speaking from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. A White House official said Trump was being “sarcastic,” but some believe the comment shows the president doesn’t fully understand how these things work (for example, a foreign leader can’t be the one to “let go” of government employees, and the move probably won’t save the U.S. much money), or the United States’ diplomatic goals. “Imagine wanting to know less about Russia’s military modernization! That’s what Trump praised today,” Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia under President Obama,said that Moscow attempted to influence the 2016 election to help Donald Trump's candidacy by hacking the Democratic Party's email systems, but the president told a crown in Poland that "nobody really knows for sure" if it wasjustRussia behind the hacks. As theChicago Tribunereported Vladimir Putin ordered the U.S. to cut 755 diplomatic jobs from its mission in Russia.July 30, 2017 The U.S. Secret Service denied President Donald Trump's personal lawyer's suggestion that the intelligence organization vetted a meeting between the president's son and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.July 16, 2017