In Tuesday’s interview, it was definitive: “I never spoke about [Putin].” Pressed to understand why he had not raised the difficulty during Thursday’s call, [Trump] said, “It was a phone call to talk about other things and, frankly, it’s a difficulty that a gigantic variety of other Americans has called fake news.”
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In the interview with Jonathan Swan of Axios, the President added that premium data “never made it to my office.
From the beginning, there are obvious disorders in Trump’s position. He called the debate “fake news,” top Pentagon officials admitted that, in fact, there were intelligence reports on the alleged bonds.
In addition, he insisted that the case was unsuccessful in his office, the facts would have been included in the president’s daily newsletter in early February, and when Swan in particular asked him if he was reading his daily intelligence report, Trump replied, “I do.”
That’s almost certainly not true, but at face value, it suggests the bounty matter did reach the president’s desk, his claims to the contrary notwithstanding.
In a similar interview, Swan reminded Trump that retired General John Nicholson, a former U.S. commander in Afghanistan, had said Russia had provided weapons to the Taliban. Trump, desperate to excuse Kremlin politics, replied: “Well, we also provided weapons when fighting Russia. You know, when they were fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan.”
Recalling that this happened another time (Trump pointed the finger at American Cold War politics), the president added, “I’m just saying we did it too.”
The implication was not subtle: the president of the United States is able to apologise to Russia for removing its assistance from the military to the Taliban, during the Reagan-era standoff for provision.
Trump questioned whether Moscow supported the Taliban, adding once again: “It never made it to my workplace. Russia prefers nothing to do with Afghanistan.”
If Vladimir Putin had written a great friend about Trump’s answers to those questions, would it be different?
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