Trump Russia claims: Mood in the White House is 'the best

President Donald Trump says the mood in the White 
House is"fantastic" despite intense scrutiny of his 
campaign's alleged dealings with Russia.

He told Reuters the administration was "functioning beautifully".

The president also defended his son, who it has emerged 
met a Russian lawyer during the election campaign.

US media have described the White House as in chaos 
over the story, with a Trump ally calling it a "Category 5 hurricane", the Washington Post said.

Donald Trump Jr met Natalia Veselnitskaya believing 
she had information that would damage his father's 
opponent Hillary Clinton.

Mr Trump Jr told Fox News the meeting was "such a 
nothing", and "a wasted 20 minutes", but accepted he 
should have handled it differently.

Critics say he may have broken federal laws.

US intelligence believe Moscow tried to sway the
 2016 election in Mr Trump's favour and there are 
ongoing investigations into potential links between Mr Trump's campaign team and Russia.

Moscow has repeatedly denied the claims.

In his interview, he Mr Trump called the 
allegations "a hoax made up by the Democrats". He has previously suggested other agents may have meddled in the election, despite senior officials in his own administration blaming Russia.

'Most people would have had that meeting'

In his Reuters interview, Mr Trump said he had not been 
aware of his son's meeting with Ms Veselnitskaya until 
couple of days ago.

Defending Donald Jr's decision to attend, he added: 
"Many people, and many political pros, said everybody 
would do that."

The president described the election campaign as 
"a wild time" when "we would meet with many people".

He refused to say that he regretted Donald Jr's actions,
commenting, "Most of the phony politicians who are Democrats who I watched over the last couple of days.

would have taken that meeting in a heartbeat."