- Fiona Hill said Putin often feels frustrated with Trump because of his lack of knowledge about big issues.
- “He had to keep explaining things, and Putin doesn’t like to do that,” Hill said.
- This took into account Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine during the Biden administration, Hill said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin often feels frustrated with President Donald Trump over his lack of knowledge on geopolitical issues, Fiona Hill said, adding that this played into Moscow’s decision about the timing of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
One of the reasons Putin invaded Ukraine with President Joe Biden in the White House was that he expected the United States to “sue for peace” and thought it would be better to deal with Biden rather than try to negotiate with someone like Trump, who was the Russian leader, Hill said, He served as Russia’s top adviser on the National Security Council under Trump, on Tuesday in Chicago Council on Global Affairs event.
“He thought that someone like Biden — who is a transatlantic, knows all about NATO, really knows where Ukraine is, knows a bit about history, is very immersed in international affairs — would be the right person to deal with,” Hill said.
“You can see that he got frustrated a few times with President Trump because he had to keep explaining things, and Putin doesn’t like to do that,” Hill said, adding: “Although he likes to be able to spin his own version of events, he is He wants to have predictability in the person he’s dealing with.”
Several former Trump advisers said the former president had a poor understanding of global affairs. Former National Security Adviser John Bolton, for example, said Trump once asked him Whether Finland is part of Russia.
Similarly, the former White House chief of staff, General John Kelly, said that Trump “knows absolutely no history, even some basics about the United States.” Hill’s new bookThere’s Nothing for You Here: Searching for Opportunity in the Twenty-first Century, published last year.
In the book, Hill writes, Trump’s meager understanding of international affairs has been a “huge handicap” to US national security.
She writes, “Whenever he attended meetings and the conversation started, it seemed like the first time he had heard things from world leaders.”
Trump did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
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