SEPTEMBER 20, 2018
Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly tried to reinforce President Trump’s perception that a bureaucratic “deep state” was working to undermine him.
Putin voiced those sentiments in phone conversations with the president, according to an excerpt of “The Apprentice: Trump, Russia and the Subversion of American Democracy” that was published by The Washington Post on Wednesday. Its author, Greg Miller, is a national security correspondent for the newspaper.
The book notes that as a trained intelligence operative, Putin knew how to draw on someone’s insecurities and their ego. In phone conversations, he would conspiratorially whisper to Trump that the reason they could not hold a more cordial relationship was because of a secret cabal inside the U.S. government, according to the excerpt.
“It’s not us. We get it,” White House aides reportedly said Putin would tell Trump. “It’s the subordinates fighting against our friendship.”
The account regarding Putin’s gestures to Trump is one of many anecdotes reported in the book, which is set to be released on Oct. 2.
In another, a CIA unit known as the “Russian House” held a series of meetings in the months leading up to the 2016 election on reports that the Kremlin was mounting a campaign to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
By August, the fears had grown so much that former CIA Director John Brennan urgently requested to see former President Obama, according to the book.
Its release comes as Trump continues to rail against special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference. Trump often refers to the probe as a “witch hunt.”
On Monday, Trump ordered for the declassification of a series of sensitive documents related to the Russia investigation.
He also lashed out at the “Deep State and the Left” earlier this month after a senior Trump administration official stated in an anonymous op-ed in The New York Times that staffers have conspired to work against the president’s impulses.
Courtesy: The Hill
