Trump on Russian involvement in Afghanistan

US President Donald Trump said that he would have acted on an intelligence assessment that Russia was paying a bounty to militants in Afghanistan to kill Americans if the matter had "reached" his desk.

In an interview with Axios political reporter Jonathan Swan, Trump said that he had "heard" that Russia had been supplying weapons and money to the Taliban.

However, he claimed that the accusations were never formally brought to his office because intelligence officials "didn't think it was real."

The claims emerged from former top US commander General John Nicholson who in 2018 said that Russia funded cash and arms to members of the terrorist group.

During his interview with Swan, Trump insisted that if the matter had "reached" his desk, he "would have done something about it."

He also added that he did not raise the topic in recent phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

White House officials have previously argued that Trump wasn’t briefed on the suspected bounties because the assessment is not conclusive.