An image of Donald Trump standing alongside Russian leader Vladimir Putin was shown on a large screen at the Republican National Convention on Thursday.
The image was broadcast at the GOP event in Milwaukee prior to Trump’s speech where he accepted the nomination for the Republican 2024 nomination.
The photo of Trump next to Putin during a meeting in Helsinki, Finland, in 2018 was shown as part of a video montage discussing Trump’s achievements as president.
During the presentation, a voice-over said that while president Trump had traveled around the world to meet with “our allies and even with our main adversaries just so they understood that America’s strength and resolve was back.” The image of Trump with Putin appeared after the mention of “adversaries.”
Trump frequently touts his strong relationship with Putin as a positive, including suggesting Russia would never have invaded Ukraine if he was still in the White House. Trump was also heavily condemned for praising Putin for the steps he took ahead of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
Kevin Rothrock, managing editor of the English-language section of independent Russian news website Meduza, condemned Trump after the image of him with Putin was shown at the RNC.
“A good reminder that Trump and his millions of voters don’t give a **** about the ‘Putin’s puppet’ epithets and actually think having their own strongman leader is cool,” Rothrock posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Trump’s office and the RNC has been contacted for comment via email.
Elsewhere during the RNC, Ohio Senator JD Vance gave a speech after he was announced as Trump’s running mate at the 2024 election.
The move was praised by top allies of Putin, given Vance’s view that the U.S. should cease supporting Ukraine as it fights off Russian invasion.
“He’s in favor of peace, he’s in favor of ending the assistance that’s being provided and we can only welcome that because that’s what we need, to stop pumping Ukraine full of weapons and then the war will end,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Wednesday.
Trump was previously criticized for comments he made on the The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In February 2022, Trump described Putin’s tactic of recognizing two self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine and sending Russian troops to the regions under the guise of “peacekeeping operations” as “genius” and “very savvy.”
Trump later doubled down on his praise of the Russian president, telling a crowd at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida just as the invasion was taking place that Putin was “pretty smart” as he had “taken over a country for $2 worth of sanctions.”
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.