Leaked Kremlin documents described Trump as an ‘impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual’: report
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President Donald Trump (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrive to waiting media during a joint press conference after their summit on July 16, 2018 in Helsinki, Finland. Chris McGrath/Getty Images
Documents assessed to be leaked from the Kremlin painted Trump as “mentally unstable.”
Trump was described as an “unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex.”
The documents, seen by the Guardian, appear to offer new insights on Russia’s plot to get Trump elected.
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Former President Donald Trump was characterized as an “impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex” in documents assessed to be leaked from the Kremlin that were seen by the Guardian.
The documents appear to show that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally supported a clandestine operation to support Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, bolstering the conclusions of the US intelligence community regarding Russian election interference. Independent experts reviewed the documents and said they appeared to be authentic, the Guardian reported.
The papers suggest that Putin, his spy chiefs, and senior ministers in January 2016 met and concluded that Trump was the best option to promote the Kremlin’s strategic objectives because he would induce “social turmoil” and undermine the American presidency. Trump’s victory “will definitely lead to the destabilization of the US’s sociopolitical system,” the report said.
One report prepared by Putin’s expert department called for “all possible force” to be used to ensure Trump’s victory, as the Kremlin viewed him as the “most promising candidate.”
The Kremlin, which has repeatedly denied that Russia interfered in US elections, scoffed at the report and told the Guardian the notion Putin and other top officials agreed to support Trump’s candidacy in a secret meeting was “a great pulp fiction.” But there is an official photo of Putin meeting with his spy chiefs and top ministers in January 2016.
Chris Krebs, the former top cybersecurity official in the US who was controversially fired by Trump, expressed skepticism and caution over the Guardian’s report and the authenticity of the documents, warning that it could be a disinformation that is untrue or misleading.
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The documents seen by the Guardian also reportedly confirm that the Kremlin had potentially compromising material on Trump – kompromat – pertaining to his visits to Russia before running for president, but the Guardian report doesn’t elaborate on the nature of the compromising material. Russian spies are known to leverage things like evidence of debt and extra-marital affairs to compel people to cooperate with them.
Trump repeatedly downplayed Russian election interference, even as his administration issued sanctions over it, and at one point appeared to side with Putin over the US intelligence community on the matter. President Joe Biden has taken a far more aggressive tone toward Putin and in April his administration slapped sanctions on over 30 Russian entities over the Kremlin’s interference in US elections and the SolarWinds hack.
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