Alexander Vindman: Trump is Putin's "Useful Idiot"

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Alexander Vindman, the former lieutenant colonel and Director for European Affairs for the United States National Security Council (NSC) as well as a star witness during President Donald Trump’s impeachment proceedings this year, said Trump is Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s “useful idiot” in an interview with The Atlantic.

“President Trump should be considered to be a useful idiot and a fellow traveler, which makes him an unwitting agent of Putin,” Vindman said in his first wide-ranging interview since providing testimony that the president attempted to coerce Ukraine and other foreign nations into undermining the candidacy of Joe Biden, his electoral opponent.

When asked if the Kremlin has the means to blackmail Trump, Vindman replied, “They may or may not have dirt on him, but they don’t have to use it. They have more effective and less risky ways to employ him. He has aspirations to be the kind of leader that Putin is, and so he admires him. He likes authoritarian strongmen who act with impunity, without checks and balances. So he’ll try to please Putin.” - PoliticusUSA