Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin said Monday that President Donald Trump is acting to help Russian President Vladimir Putin win the war against Ukraine, delivering the charge during an appearance on MS NOW’s “Deadline.”
“I think it’s hard to overstate what President Trump did this week and what it means for the war in Ukraine, but also for the entire United States of America and our positioning in the world,” Slotkin said. “The president has had this bromance with Putin for a long time. We all know that. He rolled out the red carpet for him in Alaska last year, while they were shooting at Ukraine.”
Slotkin, a Democrat, said Trump has long shown what she called a “weird kind of admiration” for the Russian leader but had previously avoided stating outright which side he wanted to win the war.
“I think at this point this week, he said the quiet part out loud. He wants Vladimir Putin to win this winter in Ukraine,” Slotkin said. She tied the shift to domestic politics, saying “Trump was in trouble. The price of gas is very high. He got us into a war in Iran that caused that. So now he’s lifting sanctions to help fuel Putin and his war machine.”
Slotkin also said Trump “slowed down the Starlink connections so that literally, the Ukrainians could not defend themselves from incoming rockets and mortars and projectiles,” and accused him of not following through on a sanctions bill introduced by Senator Lindsey Graham.
“So I think we need to believe what the president is telling us,” Slotkin said. “He has always wanted Putin to win, and now he’s acting clearly in that interest and against a democracy and in support of an authoritarian country, that, by the way, is providing intelligence to the Iranian military on how to target American citizens, American soldiers.”
