Herbert Raymond McMaster, a retired United States Army lieutenant general who served as the 25th National Security Adviser from 2017 to 2018, claimed in his new memoir how Russian President Vladimir Putin influenced former President Donald Trump during his tenure. He also claimed that Putin exploited Trump’s ego for his own benefit.
All these bold claims surfaced in McMaster’s book ‘War with myself: My tour of duty in the Trump White House’Which is published by Harper Collins and will be available in book stalls on 27th August.
The Guardian obtained a copy and outlined McMaster’s description of the relationship between Putin and Trump. “Putin, a ruthless former KGB operative, exploited Trump’s ego and insecurities through flattery,” McMaster writes.
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“Putin described Trump as ‘a very outstanding person, brilliant, without a doubt,’ and Trump revealed his weakness for that view, his fondness for powerful men, and his belief that only he could have a good relationship with Putin,” McMaster adds.
“Like his predecessors George W. Bush and Barack Obama, Trump was overconfident about his ability to improve relations with the dictator in the Kremlin. Most foreign policy experts in Washington were advocating a tough stance toward the Kremlin, but the president appears to have been forced to take the opposite approach,” he wrote.
McMaster explained that Trump’s obsession grew out of the Mueller report, which investigated Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. This obsession made it difficult to discuss anything related to Putin or Russia with him.
According to McMaster, Trump linked every issue related to Russia to the report and to allegations by Democrats and other critics that his campaign and Trump himself colluded with Russian disinformation efforts to influence the election.
Although special counsel Mueller found no evidence of criminal conspiracy, he did find that the Trump campaign tried to conceal its contacts with Russian officials by concealing the truth multiple times. In addition, Trump also tried to interfere or obstruct the investigation.