Trump claims 'absolute right' to reveal classified information to Russia
President Donald Trump at CPAC on February 24, 2017 (Michael Vadon/Flickr)

President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended revealing highly classified information to the Russian government by claiming he had the "absolute right" to tell them whatever he wanted.


"As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety," the president wrote on Twitter. "Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism."

The White House has been under fire after the Washington Post revealed on Monday that Trump had shared "highly classified" information during a meeting with Russian government officials in the Oval Office last week.

The White House called the Post's report "false," but only specifically denied allegations that were not made in the report. Specifically, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said that Trump didn't reveal anything about sources or methods of intelligence gathering, despite the fact that the Post never claimed that he did.