Putin Exploited Trump’s ‘Ego and Insecurities,’ Writes Former Nat. Sec. Adviser

Retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster in a new memoir describes the way Russian President Vladimir Putin influenced former President Donald Trump during his time in office. McMaster, who was national security adviser to Trump from 2017 to 2018, writes that Putin took advantage of Trump’s ego.

The memoir, At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House, comes out next week. The Guardian obtained a copy, and on Wednesday outlined McMaster’s account of the relationship between Putin and Trump. “Putin, a ruthless former KGB operator, played to Trump’s ego and insecurities with flattery,” McMaster writes. 

“Putin had described Trump as ‘a very outstanding person, talented, without any doubt’,” McMaster continues, “and Trump had revealed his vulnerability to this approach, his affinity for strongmen, and his belief that he alone could forge a good relationship with Putin.”

“Like his predecessors George W. Bush and Barack Obama,” McMaster continues, “Trump was overconfident in his ability to improve relations with the dictator in the Kremlin. The fact that most foreign policy experts in Washington advocated for a tough approach to the Kremlin seemed only to drive the president to the opposite approach.”

McMaster describes a moment in March 2018 where politicians were reacting to an assassination attempt on former Russian intelligence officer and double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. Meanwhile, Trump was focused on a New York Post headline: “Putin Heaps Praise on Trump, Pans U.S. Politics.” 

Trump apparently wrote a note on the article and asked McMaster to send it to Putin. “I was certain that Putin would use Trump’s annotated clipping to embarrass him and provide cover for the attack,” McMaster wrote. He told the White House office of the staff secretary not to send it. 

“[Putin] knew really what Trump’s predilections were,” McMaster recently told CBS News. “One of my roles was to alert him to that – to say, ‘Mr. President, you know, this guy is the best liar in the world.’”

McMaster was fired that same month after “ongoing conversations between the two,” an unnamed official told NPR. 

“I am very thankful for the service of General H.R. McMaster who has done an outstanding job & will always remain my friend,” Trump posted on X, formerly Twitter.

McMaster’s replacement as Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, has also turned on Trump and regularly speaks about his unfitness for office. McMaster and Bolton are two of several former Trump administration figures to have since publicly disparaged the former president. Stephanie Grisham, one of Trump’s press secretaries, spoke at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, detailing how Trump “mocks his supporters.”

McMaster’s memoir is not the first time he has spoken negatively about Trump. In 202o, he spoke out about Trump’s refusal to assure a peaceful transition of power. 

“This is very disappointing and really this is something that our founders feared,” McMaster told CNN. “We have to demand that our leaders restore confidence in our democratic principles and institutions and processes.”