Trump scrambles to defend Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping after damning revelations about his support for Iran
The president says there’s no way all these reports about Russia and China helping Iran are true.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Donald Trump has ignored the overwhelming evidence that his dictator friends are helping the very country he has been at war with for seven and a half months.
“I see so many comments from the morons and lunatics on the radical left that China and Russia are helping the ‘wonderful’ Islamic Republic of Iran,” the president wrote in a Truth Social article Monday.
“If they are, it’s at a very low level, but I don’t believe they are at all,” he continued. “They have too much to lose, and we would find out, and very quickly!
Donald Trump/Social Truth
Trump, 80, had promised his war with Tehran would last only “a few weeks” when he launched it in February. The conflict has since proven to be one of the least popular in US history, with voters placing it and the economic hardship it helped cause among their top concerns heading into the November 3 midterm elections.
Reports of Russian involvement emerged almost immediately. Moscow has provided Tehran with sensitive information on U.S. warships and aircraft, allowing Iranian forces to target them more effectively, the Washington Post revealed in March.
Russia has always supported Tehran as part of Trump’s war against the Islamist regime.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Vladimir Putin’s government also carried out a clandestine operation to help Iran develop supersonic cruise missiles capable of threatening US naval vessels, according to the Financial Times. The deal involved specialists from Russian state-controlled arms companies, whose work records show continued into the summer.
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Putin himself told Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian earlier in September that he was “trying to give you the help you need in this difficult time” by “providing you with the goods you need”, although he did not specify what exactly that entailed, the FT added.
Trump welcomed Xi to the White House the day after the Wall Street Journal revealed the extent of China’s support for Iran.
Beijing has also supported Tehran in the conflict, with Iranian customs recording around 1,300 shipments of goods potentially for military use from Chinese suppliers in the first six months of this year, the Wall Street Journal revealed last month. U.S. officials also linked satellite images obtained from Chinese companies to an Iranian attack that killed three U.S. soldiers.
Even Trump’s own defense chief has acknowledged the help Iran receives from Russia and China. Pete Hegseth told the Senate during a hearing in July that both favored Iran’s war effort “at different levels,” although he declined to reveal the full extent of their involvement.
Yet Trump has given Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping his full attention throughout the conflict. He even welcomed Xi to the White House for a luxurious state visit last month, boasting of their “true great friendship” only a day after the Journal published its explosive findings on China’s support for Iran.
And last Friday, Trump struck a controversial deal with Putin to introduce Russian diesel into international markets, easing sanctions to give Moscow a lucrative revenue stream as it continues its brutal invasion of Ukraine.
The deal, intended to ease soaring U.S. fuel prices caused by Trump’s war with Iran, sparked a furious response from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who warned that “gifts to Putin will not bring peace or any benefit to the civilized world.” Analysts suggest the deal will do little, if anything, to ease the pain in America’s pumps ahead of next month’s race for control of the House and Senate.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.
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