Fiona Hill says Putin ‘had to keep explaining things’ to Trump

Former Trump White House national security official Fiona Hill said Russian President Vladimir Putin had “to explain everything to all the time” to former President Trump.

“He had to keep explaining things, and Putin doesn’t like to do that,” Hill said this week, speaking at a Chicago Council on Global Affairs event in remarks reported by Insider.

Hill added that Putin intentionally chose to invade Ukraine during President Biden’s tenure in the White House.

“He thought that somebody like Biden, who’s a transatlanticist, who knows all about NATO, who actually knows where Ukraine is, and actually knows something about the history, and is very steeped in international affairs, would be the right person to engage with as opposed to somebody that you have to explain everything to all the time, honestly,” the former national security official added.  

Hill also said Putin frequently would become frustrated with Trump over the former president’s lack of knowledge on geopolitical issues.

“You could see that he got frustrated many times with President Trump,” Hill said. “Even though he loves to be able to spin his own version of events, he wants to have predictability in the person that he’s engaging with.” 

Hill added that Putin was perhaps “still maybe out there, you know, waiting for us to sue for peace, negotiate away Ukraine.”

Her remarks come nearly three months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and as the Senate is preparing to pass a package for the besieged country and send another $40 billion in aid. 

That aid package was delayed by objections from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who insisted that leaders add language to give an inspector general oversight of how humanitarian and military assistance is spent in Ukraine.