Fiona Hill says Trump saw Ukraine as Putin's plaything – and didn’t understand why Ukrainians weren’t Russians
Fiona Hill warns Russia could be 'a harbinger of things to come' for America
April 19, 2022
Former National Security Council expert Fiona Hill revealed more information about President Donald Trump's lack of knowledge when it comes to foreign affairs during a discussion with a group called UK in a Changing Europe.
As an expert in Russian and European affairs, Hill was tasked with navigating Russia/Ukraine issues with Trump. She was witness to some of the sidelining of experts as Rudy Giuliani endeavored to manufacture a conspiracy about President Joe Biden. Since Trump's 2020 loss, Hill and other foreign policy experts have discussed how different the Russia invasion would be going with Trump in the White House.
"Trump would have let Putin take Ukraine," said Hill. "He saw Ukraine as Russia's plaything - people who speak Russian. He told Putin a couple of times Crimea belonged to Russia. He believed Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election."
The latter point was part of a Russian talking point to distract from Russia's behavior in the election. She explained that attitudes toward Putin are not dissimilar than Trump in certain parts of the United States.
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"The bases of support for Putin and Trump are very similar," said Hill. "They are people who were 'left behind' by declining industry, whether it be in the Donbas or the Rust Belt"
She also recalled a 2019 meeting between Putin and Trump at the G20 in Osaka, Japan. Trump has just announced that the United States would pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty after Russia had spent so many years violating it. The Cold War-era pact banned missiles from the US and Russia being fired at each other. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the agreement in 1987.
Hill said that while speaking to Trump, Putin said something to the effect of, "you know your European colleagues remember the Euro missile crisis. I think they're going to be remembering this again, Donald." She said that Trump didn't understand the threat that was being made in the statement.
"In a way Putin has already used nuclear weapons. By talking about them verbally he is intending to intimidate everybody, to bring us back to the Euromissile crisis," she explained.
Hill went on to warn that she fully expects Trump will be running for office again.
"I think it is very possible that Trump will be back in 2024," she said. "I cannot see how he will not run, barring an unexpected outcome from the January 6 Committee. And he could win."
See the interview below, beginning at the 22-minute mark:
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