Former Aide Reveals How Vladimir Putin Played Donald Trump Like A Fiddle On Phone Call

[Emrys]

Last edited Tue Mar 18, 2025, 08:48 AM - Edit history (1)

And the U.S. president didn't even know it, recalled Russia expert Fiona Hill.

Fiona Hill, a former senior National Security Council official and expert on European and Russian affairs, has revealed new insights into President Donald Trump’s previous interactions with Russian President Vladimir Putin — and how she believes Putin actually mocked Trump during their exchanges.

In a lengthy interview with Foreign Affairs released Thursday, Hill described Trump as unprepared for meetings with his Russian counterpart and overly fixated on personal interactions rather than diplomatic strategy.
...
“The very first time I was in one of the phone calls with Putin, I was listening very carefully to the Russian, because the interpreters don’t always capture everything, they don’t capture the nuances, particularly when it’s the Russian interpreter who’s translating into a language that’s also not their native language, all kinds of things are missing,” she remembered.
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“There was all kinds of menace in what Putin had said, he chooses his words very carefully,” she explained.

“Many times when Putin and Trump are interacting, Putin’s actually making fun of him,” she continued. “It’s just it’s completely lost in the translation. I can give lots of episodes of this, or he’s goading him and urging him on to something, because he’s trying to see how he’ll react and the translation smooths over all that. That context is absolutely missing. And he doesn’t do a readout afterwards.”

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/fiona-hill-donald-trump-putin_n_67d3d4d0e4b0c55eb8c0bcf0

Here's the full interview with Fiona Hill for Foreign Affairs:

Accompanying text: "What Does Trump See in Putin? A Conversation With Fiona Hill" - https://www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/what-does-trump-see-putin

(Now X-posted in General Discussion - https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220150938 )

[elleng]

1. NO SURPRISE!

Thanks, Fiona.

[LittleGirl]

2. Listen to her

She knows Putin well and worked for 45. She has my utmost respect.

[Emrys]

3. She worked for G.W. Bush and Obama as well as Trump. She has quite a resume:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiona_Hill_(presidential_advisor)

... Hill has spoken of the difficulty of maintaining a consistent U.S.-Russia policy under President Trump, a result of the clash of her "hawkish" view on Russia and Trump's intermittently warm and welcoming approach, and of the difficulty of ascertaining what Trump and Putin discussed in private meetings. Hill believed that Trump idolized Putin and fell into a trap he set at the Helsinki meeting.
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Hill's views on Russia could be characterized by increasing pessimism on co-operation with the United States, as she expressed fear that even Russia's foremost oppositional politician, the now-deceased Alexei Navalny, employed populism and had a history of engaging nationalism.
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In response to a question from [the House Intelligence Committee's] chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff, Hill stated: "The Russians' interests are frankly to delegitimize our entire presidency... The goal of the Russians [in 2016] was really to put whoever became the president — by trying to tip their hands on one side of the scale — under a cloud."
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In an October 2021 interview, while recounting her tenure at the White House, Hill drew several parallels between Trump and Putin, noting that both leaders had displayed a penchant for personal power, public performance, and used public nostalgia to gain support. Trump for his part described her as "a deep state stiff with a nice accent".

During an interview by The New York Times on April 11, 2022, Hill was asked about the motivation for the January 6 rally and provoking the assault on the Capitol. She responded that it was "Trump pulling a Putin" in that he was attempting to remain in office similarly to Putin's having extended his term, because of Trump's yearning "to stay in power like the strongmen he admired".

I'm pleased to see that she's assisting with the UK's current defence review.

[LymphocyteLover]

4. She's great... and it sounds like she's describing an boss-employee relationship

Putin fucking OWNS Trump