[4] The U.S. National Security Advisor John R. Bolton met with Putin on 27 June to discuss the details of the summit and other bilateral issues.

[6] The summit was officially called the #HELSINKI2018 Meeting by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was hosted by the President of Finland Sauli Niinistö.

The bilateral discussions between the American and Russian presidents took place in the Presidential Palace's Gothic Hall; Trump and Putin met with only interpreters present.

[14] NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said they welcomed Trump's planned meeting with Vladimir Putin.

[15] On 13 July, three days before the summit, Rod Rosenstein, the United States Deputy Attorney General, announced indictments of 12 Russian GRU officers for their efforts in the 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak, through the establishment of false identities as DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, as well as charges of money laundering using bitcoin.

Signers of a letter advising him not to meet alone with Putin included Minority Leader Charles Schumer, Minority Whip Dick Durbin, and the top Democrats on the Senate Intelligence (Mark Warner), Foreign Relations (Bob Menendez), Judiciary (Dianne Feinstein), Armed Services (Jack Reed), Appropriations (Patrick Leahy), and Banking (Sherrod Brown) committees.

[21] He blamed this on "foolishness and stupidity" on the part of the U.S., and referenced the ongoing Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections, calling it a "witch hunt".

The "Welcome Trump" event gathered a crowd of 50 people including Finns Party youth and Soldiers of Odin members.

[24] The youth section of the right-wing National Coalition Party said they would hold a demonstration against President Trump's trade policy and Russia's annexation of Crimea.

[24] On the day of the summit, large crowds gathered in Helsinki city center to see the heads of states proceeding to and out of the presidential palace in their vehicles.

In the following days Russia issued multiple statements about what it said were agreements made at the summit, "shaping a narrative of the meeting with no confirmation or alternative account from the Trump administration.

On the question of the Syrian civil war, Trump wanted Iranian troops to leave Syria, while Putin would not commit to their departure.

[31] That may contradict the earlier Trump administration position that it will not provide reconstruction assistance to any part of Syria that remains under the control of Bashar al-Assad, whom Russia backs.

The Russian ambassador to the U.S. later said that Syria had been the major topic of discussion, along with "the removal of the concerns that the United States has regarding the well-known claims about alleged interference in the elections".

Four days after the meeting, a Russian military spokesman said Russia has sent formal proposals for a joint U.S.-Russian effort to reconstruct Syria and facilitate the return home of Syrian refugees.

[...] I have great confidence in my intelligence people but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today and what he did is an incredible offer.

[39]During the press conference, Jeff Mason from Reuters asked whether Putin had wanted Donald Trump to win the 2016 presidential election and had he directed any of his officials to help him do that?

Criticism focused on Trump's perceived acceptance of Putin's denial of involvement in Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, which contradicted the findings of the United States Intelligence Community, and stood in pointed contrast to the indictment of twelve Russian GRU agents just three days earlier in the ongoing Special Counsel investigation:[39] U.S. media reaction was almost universally negative, even from many commentators on Fox News who usually supported the president.

"[46] Senator Chuck Schumer said "We need hearings as soon as possible", with testimony from members of Trump's national security team present during the Helsinki summit, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

[52] Senator John McCain and former Governor Mitt Romney, the Republican nominees for president in 2008 and 2012, respectively, both strongly criticized Trump.

The New York Times' online opinion page displayed homoerotic imagery of Trump and Putin in an animated cartoon by Bill Plympton.

[66] Former national security advisor Susan Rice stated that the US-Russia summit was a bad mistake, citing many reasons, and that any future meeting would be premature.

[69] Glenn Greenwald, one of the founding editors of The Intercept, said that "90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons are in the hands of two countries—the United States and Russia—and having them speak and get along is much better than having them isolate one another and increase the risk of not just intentional conflict, but misperception and miscommunication, as well.

They described it as "subservien[ce] to Putin" and a "fervent defense of Russia's military and cyber aggression around the world, and its violation of international law in Ukraine" which they saw as "harmful to US interests".

[80] In 2019, The Washington Post reported that Trump had later attempted to conceal details of his discussions with Putin, in one instance taking possession of his interpreter's translation notes.

[82] The next day, Trump, reading from a prepared statement, claimed that he had mistakenly used the word "would" when he had meant to say "wouldn't", acknowledging Russian attempts at meddling in the 2016 election but denying Trump-Russia collusion.

[90] During an interview three days after the summit, Trump told CBS News that he holds the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, personally responsible for Russia's attempts at meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

[91] Trump asked his national security adviser, John R. Bolton, to invite Mr. Putin to Washington, to continue dialogue that began in Helsinki.

[92] Survey results published by Levada-Center indicate that, as of July 2018, Russians increasingly viewed the United States positively following the presidential summit.

[95][96] Two days later, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed that Putin and Trump had discussed the possibility of Russian officials questioning Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, as well as Putin critic Bill Browder and others, in exchange for allowing investigators of the Special Counsel investigation to question twelve Russians who are under indictment in America.