Turns out this is classic fake news. Trump encountered Putin when eating at a restaurant, reporters in tow. Not only not a "secret meeting", it involved exchanging pleasantries in a public place with multiple witnesses. With this being well known, with photos printed by Fox and the European press, the only question is "which newspaper decided to turn this into another hysterical conspiracy theory?". It was apparently picked up by AP, but the originator if this slimy, dishonest, piece of garbage, appears to be the NYT. The job of the press is to hunt down the source of this hit piece and expose them.