U.S. President Donald J. Trump with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, August 15, 2025 (DoD photo by Benjamin Applebaum/Wikimedia Commons)
President Donald Trump's recent decision to hand over $4 billion to Russia despite sanctions that he implemented is bringing up questions about his continued relationship with President Vladimir Putin.
In a podcast with The Bulwark's publisher, Sarah Longwell, former lawyer for Robert Mueller's special counsel team, Andrew Weissmann called Trump a "freaking moron" for continuing to support Putin over Ukraine.
"So, one: you're supporting authoritarians over democracy. A true national hero over an actual villain of the United States. For what? You've relieved that country of sanctions. They're you're giving them, you know, billions of dollars of sales, which they weren't supposed to get for a trickle of diesel that isn't going to make a difference to America, in terms of any sort of significant way. You know, would make a difference to America? End the g---amn war!" Weismann exclaimed.
Longwell agreed, saying with frustration that Putin is aiding Iran in killing Americans, but that "Trump has always been looking for a reason to work and do business with Putin."
Weissmann, who spent two years of his life researching and investigating the Trump and Russia connection. An incredulous Longwell said that Trump was "using our energy crisis as a pretense to like get in bed with Putin, which is clearly always wanted to do or been in. I mean, we've got these weird Russians paying for Don Jr.'s wedding!"
She asked whether Weissmann still wants to "get him on this."
"So, he managed to sort of politicize all of that," Weissmann said of the Muller investigation. "The thing that just to get cut through the chase is I still don't know the answer to what is the connection between the two of them, but I know that one theory, the innocent explanation is that Donald Trump just has a fascination with and emulates authoritarians."
While all of that is true, it doesn't answer the question, he added. It isn't as if there's a "Russian voter bloc in the United States."
Longwell closed by saying that she truly hopes that someday the world can get to the bottom of what was going on between Trump and Russia and whether it's an affinity or if it's simply that Putin is nice to him and pretends to like him and promote him.
"But also, this is where you have Steve Witoff and Jared [Kushner] freelancing on all of these things where they have financial interest. I don't know if you saw the story today," Longwell continued. "Again, we're really derailed here, but the a story just came out today that was tracking the ballroom donations and all of the favors that were given to those people who did that. And so, you know, I think some of this is just we live we have the most corrupt president of in American history."
From the executive branch perspective, Weissmann said that they operate exactly like Putin and Russia with the "pay-to-play" politics.