In the spring of 2018, relations between the United States and Russia were at a delicate stage. Vladimir Putin’s government had been credibly accused of launching a poison gas assassination attempt on British soil; the White House had just announced sanctions against Russia in response to its attack on our elections; and the Kremlin had just orchestrated a sham election that kept Putin in power.
It was against that backdrop that Donald Trump was scheduled to have a telephone meeting with the Russian leader. The then-American president’s national security team prepared briefing materials, directing Trump to condemn the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. As for Putin’s re-election, the same U.S. officials wrote in all capital letters, “DO NOT CONGRATULATE.” It was a message the Republican couldn’t miss.
It was, however, a message Trump was prepared to disregard. As regular readers might recall, the then-American president spoke to Putin, ignored his own team, made no mention of the poisoning, and congratulated Putin as if the Russian election had been legitimate. The incident was striking for a variety of reasons, and it made clear that when it comes to his autocratic allies abroad, the Republican likes to issue congratulatory declarations.
More than six years later, Trump is still congratulating his benefactor in Moscow. The Washington Post reported:
Former president Donald Trump congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin over a prisoner swap that took place this week, saying the Russian strongman had outsmarted U.S. officials as part of the largest such deal since the end of the Cold War.
“I’d like to congratulate Vladimir Putin for having made yet another great deal,” the GOP nominee told a rally audience in Atlanta on Saturday. He added, “We have 59 hostages; I never paid anything. ... Boy, we make some horrible, horrible deals. It’s nice to say we got ’em back, but does that set a bad precedent?”
At issue was an incredibly complex diplomatic feat, negotiated between seven countries — some of which don’t get along especially well. Trump’s first instinct was to complain bitterly about the agreement that brought home four U.S. residents who’d been wrongly imprisoned in Russia.
His second instinct was to publicly congratulate, not the officials from his own country who negotiated this historic deal, but the head of the adversarial country who improperly imprisoned the U.S. residents in the first place.
As for the idea that Trump “never paid anything” to secure Americans’ release, the former president continues to lie about his record, and as the Post’s report added, he “authorized an agreement to pay $2 million to North Korea for medical bills in the release of Otto Warmbier.”
Nevertheless, it’s Trump’s public praise for Putin — or more to the point, his latest public praise for Putin — that stands out. Indeed, his new congratulatory message comes on the heels of the Republican pointing to the Russian leader for validation to justify his position on Ukraine.
Which came on the heels of the former American president celebrating the fact that Putin was echoing his talking points about the 2024 election and Trump’s multiple criminal indictments.
Which came on the heels of Trump telling a Mar-a-Lago audience how “smart” Putin was for invading a neighboring country.
Which came on the heels of Trump describing Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as “genius” and part of a “wonderful” strategy.
Which came on the heels of years’ worth of Trump kowtowing, genuflecting, and repeatedly showing abject weakness toward his Russian ally.
U.S. intelligence officials have spent months alerting the public to the fact that the Russian government has launched a “whole-of-government” effort to influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, hoping to return Trump to power. As recently as last week, NBC News reported, “The U.S. intelligence community believes the Kremlin will direct its propaganda efforts to support former President Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election, an intelligence official indicated on a media call Monday.”
Let no one wonder why.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.