Putin’s puppet Donald Trump strikes again
New reporting corroborates the mounting speculation that Donald Trump is beholden to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Thursday, several senior White House officials revealed President Trump’s reluctance in assisting Ukraine in their defense against Russian military strikes. Several senior national security advisors confirmed Trump resisted months-long efforts to sign-off on a new plan to supply new U.S. weapons to the war-ravaged country since Russia deployed troops in 2014 to annex Crimea.
Several sources confirm that once Trump finally agreed to the policy shift, White House staff were told to keep quiet about the decision, as the move would upset President Putin. “He doesn’t want us to bring it up,” a White House official told NBC News. “It is not something he wants to talk about.” One source confirmed Trump pushed back on the new sanctions deal by stating Russia’s interference did not affect the election.
The news comes a week after Russian media sources revealed Trump issued a congratulatory call to the newly re-elected Putin, after ignoring multiple warnings from White House aides attempting to dissuade the President. The U.S. remains supportive of NATO’s actions against Russia’s heightened military aggression, expelling an additional 60 Russian diplomats from American soil. However, Trump continues to carefully parse his words in public, avoiding any language that may be interpreted as an insult to the Russian president. Trump continues using his Twitter account to flagrantly denounce the Russia investigation as a “Witch Hunt”, and has even called out the Special Counsel by name. In a Tweet from last week, Trump repeated his desire to strengthen U.S.- Russia relations.
Multiple reports confirm investigators are focusing on Trump campaign officials’ involvement in the July 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mueller’s team is questioning witnesses to determine whether Trump was involved in a change to the Republican Party campaign platform, watering down support for U.S. assistance to Ukraine.
Gina Bradbury is a freelance writer with 20 years experience working in both the federal government and private sector. She is active in grassroots advocacy for progressive policy.