- Sources within the Trump administration said the president was “excessively solicitous of Putin’s admiration and apparently seeking his approval,” according to CNN’s Carl Bernstein.
- Two US officials said Trump had “naively raised” Russia to almost parity with the United States. “
- “He’s playing with something he doesn’t understand,” said an official, “and he’s giving them the power they would use [aggressively]”
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President Donald Trump seems desperate for the approval of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, anonymous US officials told CNN, and a source described the calls between the leaders as “two guys in a steam room.”
Sources within the Trump administration said the president was “excessively solicitous of Putin’s admiration and apparently seeking his approval,” according to CNN’s Carl Bernstein.
Two US officials said Trump had “naively raised” Russia to almost parity with the United States. “
“He’s playing with something he doesn’t understand,” said an official, “and he’s giving them the power they would use [aggressively]”
In particular, sources scoffed at Trump’s decision to withdraw most of the American troops from Syria that had been supporting the Kurdish militias fighting against the Islamic State, a move that further increased Russian influence in the country.
Sources also told CNN that, in calls with Putin, Trump “was talking mostly about himself, often in exaggerated and forceful terms,” while rebuking his predecessors as “jerks” and “weaklings.”
The Russian president “just gets over it,” said a senior Trump administration official.
After the story was published, a White House spokesperson claimed that the president “is a world-class negotiator,” and declined to address the content of the piece.
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