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NYT: Behind Trump's Views on Ukraine: Putin's Gambit and a Political Grudge
Mark Mazzetti
The Helsinki summit got the attention. But it's the Hamburg summit, and the months that led to it, that lay the foundation for Trump's views on Ukraine. An origin story w/Adam Entous
7:47 AM · Oct 5, 2024
The Helsinki summit got the attention. But it's the Hamburg summit, and the months that led to it, that lay the foundation for Trump's views on Ukraine. An origin story w/Adam Entous
7:47 AM · Oct 5, 2024
NYT (archived) - Behind Trump’s Views on Ukraine: Putin’s Gambit and a Political Grudge
The roots of Donald Trump’s animus toward Ukraine — an issue with profound consequences should he be elected again — can be found in a yearlong series of events spanning 2016 and 2017.
By Mark Mazzetti and Adam Entous
Reporting from Washington
Oct. 5, 2024, 12:00 a.m. ET
On July 7, 2017, after President Donald J. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia shook hands in Hamburg, Germany, to conclude their first face-to-face meeting, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson walked out of the sterile conference room, removed notes from his pocket and gave anxious White House aides a summary.
“We’ve got work to do to change the president’s mind on Ukraine,” Mr. Tillerson said.
The secretary of state had just watched Mr. Putin, the former K.G.B. spymaster, put on a master class in seeking to shape the thinking of the new American president.
The Russian leader disparaged Ukraine, a former Soviet republic with aspirations of joining the European Union and NATO. Ukraine, he told Mr. Trump, was a corrupt, fabricated country.
Russia, which had seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine three years earlier and backed pro-Russia separatists in a border region, had every right to exert its influence over the country, he insisted.
/snip
The roots of Donald Trump’s animus toward Ukraine — an issue with profound consequences should he be elected again — can be found in a yearlong series of events spanning 2016 and 2017.
By Mark Mazzetti and Adam Entous
Reporting from Washington
Oct. 5, 2024, 12:00 a.m. ET
On July 7, 2017, after President Donald J. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia shook hands in Hamburg, Germany, to conclude their first face-to-face meeting, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson walked out of the sterile conference room, removed notes from his pocket and gave anxious White House aides a summary.
“We’ve got work to do to change the president’s mind on Ukraine,” Mr. Tillerson said.
The secretary of state had just watched Mr. Putin, the former K.G.B. spymaster, put on a master class in seeking to shape the thinking of the new American president.
The Russian leader disparaged Ukraine, a former Soviet republic with aspirations of joining the European Union and NATO. Ukraine, he told Mr. Trump, was a corrupt, fabricated country.
Russia, which had seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine three years earlier and backed pro-Russia separatists in a border region, had every right to exert its influence over the country, he insisted.
/snip
Link to tweet