Russia will celebrate if Mr. Trump is elected
FOA News – Former US national security advisor John Bolton said that Russian leaders would be happy if Donald Trump was elected, even though he publicly expressed his wish for Mr. Biden to win.
Former US national security advisor John Bolton in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2018. Photo: Reuters
John Bolton, who served as US national security advisor under Donald Trump’s administration and is currently a strong critic of the former president. On February 19, in an interview, Russian President Vladimir Putin recently said he wanted President Joe Biden to be re-elected “clearly an attempt to distract information”.
“The Russian leader is just giving Mr. Trump the opportunity to say ‘I think that’s a real compliment to me,'” Bolton said. “In fact, if Mr. Trump is elected, there will be a celebration in the Kremlin.”
President Putin, who once praised Mr. Trump, said on February 14 that he wanted President Biden to be re-elected because “he is more experienced, predictable and a traditional politician.” This is the first time Mr. Putin has publicly commented on this year’s US presidential election.
When asked about the Russian President’s remarks, Trump said during a campaign rally in South Carolina that “actually, Russian President Putin just gave me a great compliment.”
Mr. Trump has long considered the good relationship with Mr. Putin as proof of his administration’s foreign policy results.
Bolton specifically criticized Mr. Trump for not holding Mr. Putin responsible for the death of Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny. Navalny died in a Russian prison on February 16. Western leaders, including Mr. Biden, have fiercely criticized Russia.
After Bolton’s interview, Mr. Trump mentioned Navalny’s death for the first time. He believes that the incident helped the former president realize that America is “going downhill”, although he did not clearly explain the connection that led him to make such a comment.
Mr. Trump often does not criticize President Putin like Western leaders. “He simply doesn’t want to criticize his friend Putin, because in Trump’s mind, if he has a good relationship with Putin, then the US also has a good relationship with Russia,” Mr. Bolton continued.
The former US national security adviser also warned that Mr. Trump would have to pay legal fees and court-ordered fines. At the same time, note that foreign powers can take advantage of his financial situation as leverage for foreign policy goals.
Last week, Mr. Trump was ordered by the court to pay a fine of $355 million for business fraud in New York. Last month, he was also ordered by the court to pay $83 million in compensation to a former journalist for defamation.
“I think this is one of the demonstrations of why Trump is truly unfit for the presidency,” Bolton said. “He and his family are exhausted because of those troubles. I think foreigners will try to take advantage of his troubles in one way or another. Maybe they have already taken action.”
Mr. Bolton was appointed by Trump as US national security advisor in March 2018. After 14 months working at the White House, he was fired by Trump on the grounds of “deep disagreement with much advice” from Bolton. As a person with tough views, Bolton disagrees with Trump on many issues, especially policies with Iran and North Korea.
In June 2020, Bolton released a memoir saying that Mr. Trump once asked Chinese leaders for help to win re-election as president in 2020. Mr. Trump reacted harshly to the content in this memoir. And said that Mr. Bolton is “a liar, incompetent, dissatisfied and aggressive.”
Source: Hill, Politico, Huffpost
