The president did not identify which officials in the administration of former President George W. Bush had disparagingly spoken of the alleged Russian rewards, which came to light last month after the New York Times first reported that US intelligence officials They concluded that the Kremlin military intelligence unit offered to pay Taliban-linked militants in Afghanistan to kill US troops and other coalition forces there.
Senior administration officials have been uneven in their explanations of the extent to which Trump received information about the rewards, but POLITICO reported earlier this month that the White House told lawmakers in Congress that relevant intelligence was included in the president’s daily written report in late February.
Trump’s comments Tuesday represent the first public confirmation from the White House that he did not discuss the rewards when speaking to Putin last Thursday.
According to a reading of the White House call, the two leaders spoke about “efforts to defeat the coronavirus pandemic while continuing to reopen global economies,” as well as “critical global and bilateral problems.”
Trump also “reiterated his hope of avoiding an expensive three-way arms race between China, Russia and the United States, and looked forward to advancing the upcoming arms control negotiations in Vienna,” the White House said.
On Tuesday, Trump said that he and Putin “had a call talking about nuclear proliferation, which is a very important issue that they would like to do something about, and so do I. We discussed numerous things.”
But regarding the alleged Russian rewards, Trump said: “I have never discussed it with him, no. I would like to. I have no problem with that.”
Both White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and the president declined to comment in recent days whether the rewards emerged in the latest conversation between Trump and Putin.
In a White House briefing last Friday, McEnany told reporters he was not on the call and that the rewards intelligence “has not yet been verified,” claiming that there are “dissenting opinions within the intelligence community.” .
“We didn’t talk about what we discussed, but we had a lot of discussions, and I think it was very productive,” Trump said Monday of his conversation with Putin, during a visit to a vaccine production plant in North Carolina.
Asked about the intelligence of the United States that Russia Having been supplying arms to the Taliban, Trump justified the Kremlin’s alleged weapons program by signaling U.S. support for Afghan fighters during the Soviet Union war in the 1980s.
“Well, we also supply weapons when fighting against Russia. You know, when they were fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan, “said Trump.
Trump suggested he has not been formally briefed on intelligence, suggesting that Russia was arming the Taliban, intelligence backed by Trump’s own former commander of US international and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, the retired army general. John W. Nicholson.
“I’m just saying we did it too,” he continued. “I don’t know. I didn’t ask Nicholson about it. He was there for a long time. I wasn’t very successful because, you know, he was there before me. And finally, I made a change.”
Trump added that he “had heard” that Russia was arming the Taliban fighters, but said, “Again, it never came to my desk.”
The president’s similarity to Russian activity in Afghanistan with the actions of the US government is reminiscent of other statements that Trump has issued in apparent defense of Putin’s authoritarian regime.
When asked in 2015 about the high-profile killings of several journalists who had criticized the Russian leader, Trump memorably told MSNBC: “Well, I think our country also kills many.”
And after former Fox News journalist Bill O’Reilly characterized Putin as a “killer” in an interview with the President in 2017, Trump replied, “You have a lot of killers.” What, do you think our country is so innocent?
