'Doesn't inspire confidence': Retired Army officer says Trump talking like 'Russian agent'

13 August

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a visit to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 13, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

President Donald Trump’s invocation of the Russian city of “Leningrad” — which has been called St. Petersburg since 1991 — is raising eyebrows, and causing concern among some experts.

Just before the fall of the Soviet Union, Leningrad’s name was changed back to its original name, St. Petersburg.

Some are struggling with the President of the United States calling St. Petersburg “Leningrad,” especially just days after telling reporters — twice — that he would be meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia, when the two are meeting in Alaska, which has not been a part of Russia since 1867.

Complaining about the “unfair” media’s reporting on his upcoming meeting with Putin, which is slated to be a summit to discuss ending the Russian President’s illegal war against Ukraine, Trump wrote:

“If I got Moscow and Leningrad free, as part of the deal with Russia, the Fake News would say that I made a bad deal!”

Alexander Vindman is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and former Director of European Affairs for the United States National Security Council (NSC).

After pointing to Trump’s slip-up of calling Alaska “Russia,” Vindman noted Trump’s use of the word “Leningrad.”

“If this were the ‘Manchurian Candidate,’ the President would be exposed as a Russian agent,” Vindman charged, referring to the popular fictional film. “Nonetheless, this doesn’t inspire confidence and reflects just how inept Trump and his team are heading into this summit. How tough do the Russians think we will be if our leader is repeating narratives on the Russian legacy of Alaska, even accidentally?”

Some fringe elements in Russia wrongly insist America’s 1867 Alaska Purchase was merely a lease that has since expired.

“Looking beyond these slip-ups (that would make any counterintelligence officer’s alarm bells ring), let’s think about the venue and location of the summit,” Vindman continued. “Trump is meeting Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. In 2017, Trump held a bizarre meeting with Russian diplomats in the oval office without any public announcement or access to the American press – is anyone going to keep an eye on Putin’s entourage during this summit, or will they be free to run around a US military base?”

Olga Lautman is a senior fellow at The Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and the creator and co-host of the Kremlin File podcast series.

“The only people who call St Petersburg Leningrad are those who have nostalgia for the Soviet Union and the s—– communist system. Does Trump miss communism?” she wondered.

The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser, co-author of several books including “Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the End of Revolution,” remarked: “Noting that Putin is a Leningrad native….”

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