Trump “Admired” Putin’s Ability to Kill Whomever He Wanted: Ex-Staffer

As Donald Trump made abundantly clear during his four years in the White House, he absolutely loves himself a good dictator. We know this because of the absurdly friendly relationship he had with some of the world’s leading authoritarians while representing the U.S., which included but was not limited to:

Naturally, leaving the White House has in no way dampened Trump’s enthusiasm for despots; last month we learned that his “love letters” with Kim Jong-Un were reportedly among the documents he absconded with to Mar-a-Lago, and he has spent the last few weeks fawning over Putin, who recently invaded another country.

But just why is Trump so fond of these legitimately terrible people? The long answer would probably require numerous dissertation-length analyses by leading psychiatrists (with possibly many chapters on Fred Trump). But the short answer is that he quite clearly wishes he could get away with everything they have. No need to go to the trouble of trying to overturn free and fair elections when the elections have already been decided, and dissent? Not an issue for these guys!

Asked about Trump’s relationship with Putin during an interview with The View on Tuesday, former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said: “I think [Trump] feared [Putin]. I think he was afraid of him. I think that the man intimidated him. Because Putin is a scary man, just frankly, I think he was afraid of him. I also think he admired him, greatly, I think he wanted to be able to kill whoever spoke out against him. So I think it was a lot of that. In my experience with him, he loved the dictators, he loved the people who could kill anyone, including the press.” She added: “And I will say this, just in watching all of this with [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy, Donald Trump would be 57 feet below ground hiding. And Zelenskyy has been out there fighting for his country.”

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