Trump Once Freaked Out After Missing A Call With Putin, Former U.K. Adviser Says
Donald Trump once erupted into a fury after an aide told him he had missed a phone call with Vladimir Putin, an ex-adviser to former British Prime Minister Theresa May said on a podcast released Tuesday.
Nick Timothy, who served as joint chief of staff to May from 2016 to 2017, shared his anecdotes of the U.S. president on the “What Were They Thinking?” podcast, which interviews former political figures in the United Kingdom.
“Meeting Donald Trump was fairly extraordinary,” Timothy said, when prompted to reflect on unusual occurrences during his career. He said that during a meeting with May in the Oval Office, Trump went on a tirade against Michael Flynn, who was serving as his national security adviser at the time.
“Somebody just mentioned in passing that Vladimir Putin had asked for a call with him, and right in front us, he absolutely shouted down Mike Flynn. Like, really shouted,” Timothy said. “This was at a formal dinner, with butlers and fancy crockery. ... [Trump] was properly shouting at him down the table, because ‘if Putin wants a call with me, you just put him through.’”
Trump’s fervor for the Russian president was further confirmed last week in old documents released by the Senate Intelligence Committee, showing the president fawning over the Russian leader and claiming he was a “big fan.”
Timothy said the entire affair was “not especially reassuring about the state of [Trump’s] mind, or the stability of decision-making in the White House.”
In another story related to that same visit, Timothy said Trump and then-White House chief strategist Steve Bannon had pontificated on geopolitical issues in front of May in a “pretty strange” manner.
Bannon, in particular, sounded like someone who had “read a couple of books” rather than a full-fledged expert, Timothy said, musing how the former Trump strategist had referred to Japanese people as “warrior people” when debating whether or not Japan should...
