Trump comments for the first time on CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s ‘semi-routine’ visit to Moscow
U.S. President Donald Trump has commented for the first time on CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s August 25 trip to Moscow. “He’s there on … you know, very sort of semi-routine [business],” Trump said in an interview with radio host Glenn Beck. “I hate to disappoint people. We would like to see the war in Ukraine end.”
Trump denied reports that Ratcliffe had been sent to Russia because Putin planned to “test the resolve” of NATO.
Still, Trump said that something “may come out of” the CIA director’s visit to Russia. “We’re working very hard to get that war ended … Frankly, they both [Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky] want to see it ended at this point,” he said.
Journalists linked Ratcliffe’s trip to reports that Washington intended to deliver a “warning” to Putin. The Kremlin said Ratcliffe had come for “contacts between intelligence services” and had not met with Putin.
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