Yes he was:
Donald Trump reportedly asked Vladimir Putin for his advice on whether the US should help arm Ukraine at their first in-person meeting.
The Republican presidential nominee, who has been vocal in his criticism of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, reportedly asked Putin āwhat do you think?ā when the pair met in Hamburg in 2017, according to The New York Times.
Trump has wildly claimed Putin āwould never have gone into Ukraineā if he were president and has touted his āvery good relationshipā with him several times.
The meeting ā which took place three years after Russian forces invaded the Crimean peninsula ā was āan openingā for Putin to begin exploiting Trumpās āescalating political grudgeā against Ukraine in a bid to weaken US support for the country, officials who were privy to the exchange have shared with the newspaper.
Trump had only been in office for seven months when the pair met. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson attended the meeting, which was āa masterclassā by Putin to mold the relatively new presidentās approach to Ukraine, according to The Times