Putin’s bounty: Did Trump know—and if not, why not?
The America First president has once again put the country second to Russia, said Max Boot in The Washington Post. This week, The New York Times confirmed that intelligence officials provided President Trump with a written briefing in February about a plot by Unit 29155 of the GRU—Russian military intelligence—to pay Taliban militants cash bounties for killing U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan. The Times also reported that Russia made large payments to the Taliban after attacks that caused several American deaths, including an April 2019 car bomb that killed three U.S. Marines. Since March 30, Trump has spoken with Putin at least five times, argued for Russia’s re-entry into the G-7, and hailed the “great friendship” between the two nations, all without saying a word about this atrocity. We’ve learned yet again that Trump is willing “to sacrifice America’s national interests” to appease Putin—even when it costs our soldiers their lives. The question is why? In response to the revelation, the administration tried “to play down the intelligence assessment,” said Charlie Savage in The New York Times. John Ratcliffe, the newly confirmed director of national intelligence, said the leaked plot was still being investigated, and White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany claimed there are “dissenting opinions” among intelligence agencies about whether it’s true. Meanwhile, McEnany continued to echo the president’s protest that he wasn’t actually “briefed” on the material, seemingly drawing a fine distinction between what is included in the written Presidential Daily Brief, or PDB, and what intelligence officials told him orally.
House Democrats emerged from a White House briefing on the Russia plot demanding answers, said Olivia Beavers in TheHill .com. They said no explanation was provided as to why the president would not have been warned of Russia’s hostile actions— especially since “he kept up communications” with Putin. The outrage was actually bipartisan, said Warren Strobel in The Wall Street Journal, and some Republicans briefed earlier found the administration’s explanation wanting. “Did the commander in chief know?” asked Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.). “And if not, how the hell not?”
If he didn’t, here’s why, said Jonathan Chait in NYMag.com. As prior reporting shows, the intelligence officials who deliver the PDB know that any negative reference to Putin and Russia sends
Trump “off the rails.” So, they’ve learned over time to “dance carefully around” the subject and instead insert this material into the written version to cover themselves, knowing that he never reads it. No one, of course, knows why “the America First, bully-boy president” is such a snowflake when it comes to Putin. It could be “years of courting and flattery” of Trump by Russians intent on manipulating him, or something darker—perhaps blackmail over Trump’s financial dealings with Russian oligarchs.
But regardless of what motivates Trump, if he can’t abide hearing that Russia has put a bounty on American troops—“a literal act of war”—then it’s clear that the U.S. president is “in hock to Putin.”
Oh, please, not this again, said Susan Ferrechio in Washington Examiner.com. Democrats are predictably using this unconfirmed story to resurrect the Trump-is-in-Putin’s-pocket talking point. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi openly alleged blackmail, saying, “I don’t know what the Russians have on the president,” while calling for intelligence agencies to give a full briefing to Congress. The truth is that the Mueller investigation failed to find a criminal conspiracy between Trump’s campaign and Russia. This administration has been plenty tough on Russia, arming Ukraine against Russian incursion, which the Obama administration failed to do.
This wouldn’t be the first time that Russia has teamed up with the Taliban, said Robyn Dixon in The Washington Post. U.S. officials say Moscow has been providing the group with small arms and funding. Why? Putin views the Taliban as “an indispensable player in Afghanistan,” courting the group as a potential bulwark against the Islamic State’s expansion into Central Asia. He’d be happy to see Trump pull out all the troops from Afghanistan and leave the region to him. Clearly, Putin “wants to weaken us,” said Tom Rogan in WashingtonExaminer.com. Russian foreign policy is attuned to westward expansion and, specifically, the creation of “Soviet-style” client states among the Baltic republics that are now protected by NATO and the U.S. The former KGB agent dreams of restoring Russia as a world power and still sees America as “the main enemy.” That’s why he interfered in the 2016 election, and why the GRU is paying to have Americans killed. Trump’s friend in Moscow is very much “on the offensive.”