The ranking member of the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee on Tuesday added his voice to the chorus of critics of the US president’s unwavering faith in whatever comes out of Vladimir Putin’s mouth.
After the Kremlin claimed that Ukrainian drones were shot down over one of Putin’s residences early Monday morning, US President Donald Trump said he was inclined to believe it because “Putin told me” it happened.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), however, was having none of Moscow’s disinformation on Tuesday, but said it was “possible that Trump is just that stupid” to believe it.
“It’s rather transparent that they’re lying about this,” the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee told CNN. “[The Kremlin] wanted to derail the peace process and to convince Trump that [President Volodymyr] Zelensky was the bigger problem here.
“And the depths of President Trump’s cluelessness, and not seeing that, and misunderstanding what Putin is about and what he’s doing at this point, is very discouraging. It undermines the ability to get to peace.”
Zelensky on Tuesday said Kyiv’s allies had the capabilities to verify that the alleged drone attack on Putin’s residence in Valdai was false.
“Regarding the attack on Valdai, our negotiating team connected with the American team, they went through the details, and we understand that it’s fake. And, of course, our partners can always verify thanks to their technical capabilities that it was fake,” Zelensky told reporters.
Kyiv Post’s own investigative team went through the Kremlin’s claims and found little evidence that the attack overnight Sunday-Monday ever took place.
Many voices in Washington this week, including the former US Ambassador to Ukraine, were incredulous that Trump simply would take Putin’s provocations at face value.
“Let’s be clear,” Smith continued, “there really only are two possibilities here and neither is very encouraging. One is that Trump is an idiot, still doesn’t understand what Putin is about, and that what he wants is to completely control all of Ukraine, and the only way to end this war is to back Ukraine and make it clear that Putin is not going to get that.
“It’s possible that Trump is just that stupid,” Smith said.
“It’s also possible,” he continued, “that Trump has a different world view: That the strong take what they want. Trump is talking about how the Western Hemisphere should be dominated by the US, trying to bring regime change in Venezuela, he’s threatening Greenland and Panama, and Canada, and maybe this is just his world view.
“That Putin is the strongman over there, and can take what he wants and it’s not our problem.”