US PRESIDENT Donald Trump proposed a White House summit when he called Russian President Vladimir Putin last month, prior to the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats from the US, a top Kremlin aide said overnight.

“Trump proposed holding a meeting at the White House in Washington,” Mr Putin’s top foreign policy aide, Yury Ushakov, told reporters.

On March 20, Mr Trump called Mr Putin to congratulate him on his re-election, and the US leader told reporters afterwards that the two would “probably get together in the not-too-distant future.”

In calling Mr Putin, Mr Trump ignored explicit advice from his national security advisers not to do so, The Washington Post has reported, quoting officials familiar with the call.

Mr Ushakov said on Monday, however, that the two sides have not had any “concrete discussions” about the summit since that rare Trump-Putin phone conversation.

“It was Trump himself who proposed holding the meeting,” Mr Ushakov said. “But after that a new breakdown in our bilateral ties has taken place, the diplomats have been expelled.”

He expressed the hope that Russia and the United States could return to “constructive and serious dialogue.”

After the call, Washington expelled 60 Russian diplomats and shut down a Russian consulate in Seattle, joining Britain’s allies in responding to the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.

Moscow responded by sending home 60 US diplomats and closing Washington’s consulate in Saint Petersburg.

Washington has, however, said Russia is free to apply to accredit more diplomats to replace those expelled.

TRUMP URGES USING ‘NUCLEAR OPTION’ AT BORDER

It comes as Mr Trump demanded on Monday that Congress pass new border legislation using the “Nuclear Option if necessary” to muscle it through the Senate — a drastic change in rules the Republican leader has previously dismissed.

Mr Trump tweeted that the US must build a border wall, but argued that “Democrats want No Borders, hence drugs and crime!”

He also said that a deal to help “Dreamer” immigrants is “dead because the Democrats didn’t care or act.”

Mr Trump has previously called for the “nuclear option” — changing Senate rules to end the filibuster.

The US president began tweeting over the weekend on the subject of immigration, threatening to pull out of a free-trade agreement with Mexico unless it does more to stop people from crossing into the US. He claimed they’re coming to take advantage of protections granted to certain immigrants.

He said Mexico must “stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. NEED WALL!”

The $1.3 trillion funding package Congress passed last month included $1.6 billion in border wall spending. But much of that money can only be used to repair existing segments, not build new sections. Congress also put restrictions on the types of barriers that can be built.

“Mexico has got to help us at the border,” Mr Trump, holding his wife’s hand, told reporters before the couple attended Easter services at an Episcopal church near his Palm Beach, Florida home.

Former President Barack Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) to provide temporary protection and work permits to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who are living in the US illegally after being brought here as children. Mr Trump ended the program last year, but gave Congress six months to pass legislation enshrining it.

A deal has so far proved elusive and Mr Trump has blamed Democrats.

“They had a great chance. The Democrats blew it. They had a great, great chance, but we’ll have to take a look because Mexico has got to help us at the border. They flow right through Mexico. They send them into the United States. It can’t happen that way anymore.”

Mr Trump tweeted that the situation is “Getting more dangerous” and “Caravans” are coming.

The tweets came after Fox News’ Fox & Friends reported on a group of 1,200 immigrants, mostly from Honduras, headed to the US. The segment was a follow-up to a report by Buzzfeed News on hundreds of Central Americans making their way through Mexico in hopes that American authorities will grant them asylum or be absent when they attempt to cross the border.

TRUMP PRAISES US ECONOMY DURING ANNUAL EGG HUNT

He also praised the state of the nation’s economy at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

Mr Trump spoke briefly to hundreds of guests on the South Lawn, pointing to a “special year” for the country and progress on the economy.

The president and first lady Melania Trump, joined by 12-year-old son Barron, then walked over to the station where kids were rolling dyed, hard-boiled eggs across the lawn.

Mr Trump addressed reporters briefly, reiterating that Democrats have “really let” down young immigrants seeking a deal on protections from deportation. Trump has been trying to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Although he says he has been open to a law extending it, he and Congress have been unable to come to terms.