Lewandowski: Trump’s Putin meeting really just a conversation with first lady

President Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski this week downplayed the president’s second, previously undisclosed meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Group of 20 summit by saying it was really just a conversation with the first lady.

“Our best representative, who is stunningly beautiful and incredibly intelligent, sat next to Vladimir Putin at the request of the German chancellor,” Lewandowski said on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday. First lady Melania Trump was seated next to the Russian leader at the dinner.

“She had a conversation with Vladimir Putin. He was her dinner partner for a few hours, big deal,” Lewandowski said.

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“[Trump] got up and walked over and he saw his beautiful wife, the first lady of the United States, and he had a conversation with her,” Lewandowski went on.

“How is this anything other than the president of the United States going over and seeing a first lady, who by the way speaks five languages, is incredibly beautiful, is incredibly intelligent, and is a great representative of our country,” he continued.

Trump spoke with his Russian counterpart for about an hour and was accompanied by Putin’s translator, but not his own, according to Tuesday reports.

Trump disputed the length of the conversation in his account of the meeting, saying it was about 15 minutes and that they mainly traded “pleasantries.”

The White House said the leaders used a Russian translator during their conversation because the translator with Trump only spoke Japanese.

“There was no ‘second meeting’ between President Trump and President Putin, just a brief conversation at the end of a dinner,” a White House official said, responding to the reports.

“The insinuation that the White House has tried to hide a second meeting is false, malicious and absurd,” the official continued.

News of the conversation comes as the Trump administration faces scrutiny around the probe into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russian election meddling.

Trump and Putin held a formal meeting during the summit in which the president reportedly pressed the Russian president on election meddling, which has been denied by Putin.