The Russian Connection
By
Donald Trump advertised himself as the man who can end the war in Ukraine. JD Vance’s suggestions on how that might be done, along with Trump’s vaguer comments, amounted to giving Vladimir Putin what he wants.
The concern about Trump’s ties to Russia and his admiration of Putin predate even his first presidential run. The Mueller Report noted many connections. Trump’s first National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, got into trouble for being too publicly connected to the Russian ambassador.
Putin did, however, speak favorably of Kamala Harris as a presidential candidate. But he made a conventional statement of congratulations to Trump even as the state-supported tv program, 60 Minutes (yes, confusing name) showed nude photos of Trump’s wife, Melania, from her modeling days.
Melania never seemed happy to be First Lady during Trump’s presidency and has been absent from the campaign trail. Trump’s victory photo, with his family, includes Elon Musk but not Melania.
On the evening of November 10, the Washington Post published a story (gift link) saying that Trump had spoken to Putin and advised him not to escalate the war in Ukraine. The story was sourced to “several people familiar with the matter.” I wondered about that sourcing. Trump’s approach to phone calls is not the State Department’s, but there would be a limited number of people listening in to a call like this, and for any of them to run to the WaPo seemed unlikely. Yes, the message was that Big Strong Trump was setting the tone for peace, but that level of leakage so early on, no. The article also did not say whether Putin had called Trump or vice versa. Which way it went would be important.
The next day, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov repudiated the call. It never happened, fake news, he said.
The Moscow Times speculates on possible reasons for the denial, mostly associated with the question of whether Putin is willing to negotiate an end to his war on Ukraine. The read of many experts has been that he is not. He wants Ukraine crushed and groveling. But there are other possible reasons.
It’s easy to read the combination of showing Melania’s photos and repudiating the phonecall as a message that the Kremlin is in charge; that can easily be attached to an already existing sense that Trump is indebted to Putin. Or we know that both sides are liars, and either or both could be lying about the phonecall.
Welcome to the Trump years!