Appearing at a conference in Washington, D.C., former White House Russia adviser Fiona Hill, who served under Donald Trump, said the former president is convinced that he and he alone was responsible for his 2016 election victory and that Russian President Vladimir Putin could have burst his bubble by taking credit for helping him over the finish line.
At the Principles First Summit, Hill said that Trump deeply admires Putin and it would not take much for the Russian strongman to humiliate the now-former president and that a boast by Putin about the election would have pushed Trump over the edge.
As the Guardian is reporting, Hill addressed the notorious Helsinki meeting where Trump and Putin spoke in private, and explained to the audience, "Putin always looked to put one over Trump and, actually, every leader he ever meets. Even Xi Jinping of China. Putin thinks about what people’s vulnerabilities are, and how he can then try to manipulate the conversation to go in his direction."
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Adding, "Trump admires Putin so much, he never wants to be humiliated," she continued, "The instance in which he was asked the question [at a press conference] about whether he felt that the Russians interfered in the election, he wanted to push back very quickly against it. He wanted to diminish any kind of idea of that because if … he wanted to get the message across that nobody had interfered on his behalf."
According to Hill, Putin could have made it all fall apart.
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She noted Trump refuses “to believe that Russia tried to tip the scales to his benefit. And if Putin had actually said to him at some point, ‘No, Donald, I did try to interfere in the election,’ I think he would have lost his mind completely."
“Because what would he have done about that? He’s trying to push back against this and the conclusion of course is that no, Russia didn’t do that at all," she added.
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