Trump congratulates Putin on hosting the World Cup: 'one of the best ever!'

MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/AFP/Getty Images

• President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday to congratulate the winners of the 2018 World Cup.
• On that list, he included Russian President Vladimir Putin for hosting "one of the best ever!" tournaments in Moscow.
• Trump's tweet comes a day before he's set to meet one-on-one with Putin in Helsinki, and two days after the special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for efforts to interfere in the 2016 US presidential campaign.

President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday to congratulate the winning team, President Vladimir Putin, and Russia after the World Cup final, which he called "one of the best ever!"

France defeated Croatia on Sunday to finish off the 21st World Cup, the first held in Eastern Europe in central Moscow's Luzhniki stadium, at a time when Trump and Putin's relationship is in the spotlight.

Trump's tweet comes a day before he's set to meet one-on-one with Putin in Helsinki, and two days after the special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for efforts to interfere in the 2016 US presidential campaign.

Several lawmakers have spoken out since the indictments for Trump to cancel the meeting, agree to bring other US officials in the meeting, and to prioritize discussing campaign meddling. The White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the meeting would go on as planned.

Trump said in a Saturday interview he had "low expectations" for the meeting, and planned to ask about extraditing the indicted intelligence officers.

When asked who he thought was the "biggest foe" to the US right now, Trump named the European Union, China, and Russia.