WASHINGTON — President Trump insisted Wednesday that CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s surprise trip to Moscow wasn’t to warn President Vladimir Putin not to “test NATO resolve” or “strike England” after the Cabinet official’s unannounced four-hour visit on Tuesday launched rampant speculation.
Radio host Glenn Beck asked Trump about theories that Ratcliffe visited Tuesday to discuss Iran sanctions or caution Putin.
“Well, none of the above. He’s there, you know, on very sort of semi-routine — I hate to disappoint people,” Trump replied.
The president insinuated that Ratcliffe was discussing long-stalled efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“We would like to see the war with Ukraine end. That’s a war would have never started, Glenn,” Trump went on.
“If I were president … you wouldn’t have had the war with Ukraine, and you wouldn’t have had 25 million people coming into our country like they did. Just come in like we were a bunch of fools. It was so sad,” Trump said.
“John Ratcliffe is a fantastic guy. He’s the head of the CIA, and he is not in there for any of the things that you said. Now something may come out, you know, out of it. We’re working very hard to get that war ended, and frankly, they both want to see it ended at this point.”
Ratcliffe’s visit was the first known trip to Russia by a CIA director since William Burns visited in late 2021 as US intelligence indicated Russia intended to invade Ukraine, which it did the following February.
That history spurred speculation that the US might be warning Russia against some looming action.
There also were theories that Ratcliffe wanted to discuss the newly launched Operation Economic Outcast, which aims to sever Iran’s economic ties with countries such as China and Russia to force a nuclear deal to end that war.
Ratcliffe is one of Trump’s most trusted advisers and has been heavily involved with the Iran conflict, winning the president’s praise for secretive CIA operations in the early phase of fighting.
Russia-Ukraine peace efforts have been, to date, handled primarily by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump son-in-law, who traveled to Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin in January.
Speculation over Ratcliffe is heightened due to secrecy around Trump’s departure from the annual NATO conference in Turkey last month — with a publicly announced plane swap purportedly to let US troops tour the new Air Force One followed by a second secret transfer due to intelligence on Iranian threats.
