Amid new allegations that China and Russia are helping Iran in its ongoing war with the United States, Donald Trump apparently decided to set the record straight — or at least try to.
In a Friday morning statement published to his social media platform, the American president said that Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin separately assured him that their respective countries would not provide Iran with support.
“Therefore, two major Countries that people speak of often in terms of Iran are, in my opinion, not participating,” the Republican added.
The trouble is, Trump’s “opinion” isn’t altogether relevant. What matters is the truth, not what he considers to be the truth. And there’s a whole lot of evidence to suggest the American president’s “opinion” is wrong.
It was just five weeks ago when, as the Group of Seven summit in France was wrapping up, Trump offered some curious praise to his friend in Moscow. “I want to thank Vladimir Putin, he was very neutral,” the Republican said, referring to the Russian president’s role in the war with Iran. “They could have made it much more difficult for us.”
About a month later, Republican Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth a straightforward question during a televised congressional hearing: “Are Russia and China helping Iran? And if so, how?”
The Pentagon chief hemmed and hawed a bit, explaining that there are details that “ought to remain classified,” before stating that China and Russia are “enabling some of the things Iran is doing” — a far cry from remaining “very neutral,” as Trump claimed.
A day later, MS NOW reported, as part of its live blog coverage: “Recent Iranian drone strikes targeting CIA facilities in the Persian Gulf have prompted U.S. intelligence analysts to probe whether Russia was involved in providing information to Tehran, Reuters reported. … The U.S. investigation has not led to firm answers on whether the Kremlin was involved in the recent attacks, according to the report, but the precision of the attacks has stoked further speculation over the extent of Russia’s technical support for Tehran.”
But as this week nears its end, Hegseth’s boss nevertheless decided to contradict his own defense secretary via social media, declaring that China and Russia are “not participating” in the conflict.
Under the circumstances, Trump’s version of reality is literally unbelievable. In fact, just days into the war with Iran, multiple news organizations, including MS NOW, reported that Russia had provided Iran with information that could help it strike American targets. One U.S. official told MS NOW point-blank that Russia was “providing intelligence help to Iran.”
It wasn’t long before any doubt about the accuracy of the reporting evaporated. Iranian officials publicly confirmed Russia’s “military cooperation”; U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz acknowledged Russia’s wartime “strategic partnership” with Iran; and Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California, a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said matter-of-factly that Russia was “providing intelligence to Iran to better attack and kill American troops.”
The Wall Street Journal soon after advanced the broader story, reporting that Russia expanded its intelligence sharing and military cooperation with Iran, “providing satellite imagery and improved drone technology to aid Tehran’s targeting of U.S. forces in the region.”
This should have been the sort of news to send shock waves through the nation’s capital. In the middle of an ongoing and deadly hot war in the Middle East, the administration had reason to believe one U.S. adversary (Russia) was helping another U.S. adversary (Iran) facilitate attacks against us.
Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a former CIA and Pentagon official, said during a Senate hearing, “If Russia is helping to kill U.S. forces, we have crossed a Rubicon. We are in another moment. We have to take decisive action on that.”
But there were no shock waves. Trump and his team chose not to care.
The initial reaction from the American president and his team to the allegations was total indifference. This was followed by news that the Republican administration agreed effectively to reward Putin’s regime by easing oil sanctions on the country.
All the while, top members of Team Trump publicly vouched for Russia’s trustworthiness and echoed Kremlin talking points.
The American president managed to make the problem worse during a Fox News interview by conceding that he believed Russia “might be” assisting Iran, but he added that Putin’s regime deserves a pass because the U.S. has assisted Ukraine.
“You know, it’s like, hey, they do it and we do it, in all fairness,” Trump said. “They do it and we do it.”
Days later, he went further, telling the Financial Times, in reference to Russia, “It’s hard to say, ‘You’re targeting us, but we’ve been helping Ukraine.’”
In other words, the incumbent American president, during a war, both echoed Putin’s talking points and excused an adversary for helping a different adversary target American troops and assets.
All the while, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared publicly that his country’s government had “irrefutable” evidence that Russia had provided intelligence to the Iranian regime during the war, but he simply couldn’t get the White House to take an interest in the proof.
A simple question appears unavoidable: As Trump launches a new effort to assure the public that Russia and China are “not participating” in the war, is he confused about recent events he ought to understand? Or does he not know what “participate” means?
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
The post Contradicting Hegseth, Trump claims Russia is ‘not participating’ in Iran appeared first on MS NOW.
