President Donald Trump is being "played" by Russia and poses a "peril" to the United States as a result.
That's the explosive claim of two former top US intelligence chiefs,.
They say they are appalled that President Trump seems to believe Vladimir Putin's denials that Russia attempted to interfere in last year's US elections.
The row was sparked by a meeting between the two leaders held over the weekend on sidelines of the APEC summit in Vietnam.
Our Washington Correspondent Simon Marks reports.
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An old American spy….a seasoned practitioner of US statecraft in the Soviet era….once told me about a concept the Russians call "rovna".
It was, he insisted, at the heart of all dialogue between US and Russian diplomats throughout the Cold War.
Broadly it means this:
I know you're lying.
You know I know you're lying.
I know you know I know you're lying.
But it seems today that's gone out of the window, after President Trump seemed to side with Russian President Vladimir Putin who insists he had nothing to do with interfering in last year's American elections.
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"Especially as currently constituted".
That's quite a caveat….because the President is drawing a distinction between the intelligence leaders he's appointed, and those who were running the country's spy agencies under President Barack Obama.
They all concluded the Russians did try to interfere in last year's elections….but President Trump on Saturday dismissed them as "political hacks".
Two of those so-called hacks took to America's airwaves to say they believe President Trump is being played by Vladimir Putin.
John Brennan…the former CIA chief….
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And James Clapper, the former director of National Intelligence.
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Which left Trump loyalists like Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin scoffing at the notion that his boss is Vladimir Putin's plaything.
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Hard to do that though when your administration is in the crosshairs of several investigations that appear to be proving there were attempts by members of the Trump team to collude with the Russians.
The President's adviser, Kellyanne Conway, did her best to explain what her boss really thinks.
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Except he doesn't…and he isn't.
Which is why the White House remains in a self-inflicted pickle….one that only intensified as a result of President Trump's latest meeting with Vladimir Putin.
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