“What he did was bring up right away the election meddling, and he did that for a reason,” Nikki Haley said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “One, he wanted … to basically look him in the eye, let him know that: ‘Yes, we know you meddled in our elections. Yes, we know you did it, and cut it out.’”

US intelligence agencies report that Russia tried to help Trump's campaign effort. The FBI as well as congressional committees are investigating whether the Russian government coordinated with Trump associates during the campaign.

Haley moved on to say that the Russian leader “did exactly what we thought he would do” when he denied Moscow’s interference.

“And I think that is what it is. They’re gonna always have two different stories on this,” she said.

“They’re gonna always have two different stances on this. But at the end of the day what was most important was for President Putin to hear from President Trump: ‘We know you did this. We didn’t like it. Don’t do it again.’”

While speaking with British Prime Minister Theresa May at the Hamburg Messe in Germany, Trump said he and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had a "tremendous meeting with" Putin on Friday,