Multiple reports say Donald Trump spoke with Vladimir Putin just before signing Russian sanctions bill

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Donald Trump finally signed a bill today which took away his own power to ever unilaterally ease U.S. sanctions on Russia, because he didn’t have a choice. It passed both the House and Senate in near-unanimous bipartisan fashion, and Trump couldn’t have stopped it from becoming law it even if he’d vetoed it. But multiple reports now say that Trump spoke directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin before signing the bill, raising eyebrows.

The hubbub began when political insider Jon Cooper revealed that according to his own top inside source in the White House, “Trump spoke with Putin before he signed Russia sanctions bill. No word yet on what Putin’s Puppet told him, but stay tuned!” (link). That led another political insider, Scott Dworkin, to add “I heard the same, different source.” (link). This makes for a stunning revelation: Trump consulted with the President of Russia about a bill which punished Russia.

Based on these reports, Donald Trump held a phone call with Vladimir Putin that was not disclosed to the public. This breaks even further from standard protocol for these kinds of matters. Earlier this year, the Trump administration made a point of not recording Trump’s phone call with Putin, even though it took place on the same day in which Trump’s phone calls to numerous other world leaders were recorded. Now the secret hijinks between Trump and Putin appear to be reaching new levels.

We can also infer that Putin must have given Trump the green light to go ahead and sign the bill, knowing that Trump couldn’t have stopped it even if he tried, and that he’d only have further hurt his credibility and raised suspicion if he had refused to sign it. Nonetheless, this means that Trump has now permanently failed in one of the key tasks his puppet master Putin assigned him, and Putin’s patience has to be wearing thin by the day. If you find Palmer Report valuable, make a donation.

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