Vladimir Putin cultivated Donald Trump as a “source” to manipulate the United States, a former head of the CIA has said.
Leon Panetta, who also served as defence secretary under Barack Obama, added that there were “real questions” over Trump’s loyalty to the United States because of his relationship with the Russian president.
Trump recently said they had “a very good relationship”, while a new book claimed the former president had secretly sent Covid-19 tests, which were in limited supply, to Russia for Putin’s personal use in 2020.
Speaking on the One Decision podcast, Mr Panetta said: “To have a president basically engaging with an adversary, who knows what deals are made… the mere fact a former president of the United States is having regular conversations with our primary adversary raises real questions about where is his basic loyalty. Is it really to the United States of America or is it to Donald Trump?”
The book claimed Trump and Putin have spoken by phone at least seven times since the former left the White House in 2021.
‘A tyrant and our enemy’
“Why would you possibly — someone who wants to be president of the United States — have a continuing relationship with someone who is a tyrant and is basically our enemy.”
Mr Panetta described Putin, a former KGB spy, as a “bad guy”, adding that the Russian president is “not to be trusted”.
“That’s what worries me,” the former CIA boss added. “I think Donald Trump in many ways is naive about who Putin really is.
“He [Putin] knows how to work a source and he’s got a source that is very near the top in this country, he, himself is going to engage that source.
“And that really is what the bottom line is, is that Trump has turned into a source for Putin, and somebody who can help him manipulate what he wants to get done.”
Mr Panetta went on to accuse Trump of trusting Russian intelligence more than US intelligence.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, denied that the former president had maintained a regular speaking relationship with Putin.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, also denied it, saying: “As for the calls, that’s not true, it didn’t happen.”
The accusations come after Bob Woodward, the veteran American reporter who broke the Watergate scandal, said a former Trump aide had told him about the shipment of Covid tests to Moscow.
The claims prompted fierce denials from Trump’s campaign team, which said: “None of these made up stories by Bob Woodward are true and are the work of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Exchange of ‘rare items’
However, on Thursday the Kremlin claimed the reports that Trump had shipped Covid tests to Moscow were true.
Mr Peskov said: “The first tests worked badly and at first there was not enough equipment… all countries tried to somehow exchange between themselves. We sent a supply of ventilator units to the US, they sent these tests to us.”
He said the shipment was made at the beginning of the pandemic, adding: “At the time, these were rare items.”
Mr Woodward’s account of the story said that Putin had told Trump not to reveal details of the alleged shipments because it would harm the then-US president politically.
His new book, War, contains a number of revelations about Trump’s relationship with the Russian despot.
The book claims that the two men held a phone call in early 2024, as Joe Biden prepared to send more weapons to Ukraine.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that he could end the war in Ukraine by brokering a deal between Kyiv and Moscow.
He has also said Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if he had won the 2020 presidential election.
