Donald Trump has admitted that Russian president Vladimir Putin could be helping Iran in its military efforts against the U.S., contrary to claims made previously by his envoy to the Middle East.
“I think he might be helping them a little bit, yeah, I guess, and he probably thinks we’re helping Ukraine, right?” Trump said, speaking to Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade in a Friday interview. “Yeah, we’re helping them also.”
The two nations have been at war since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“So he [Putin] says that, and China would say the same thing, you know,” Trump said. “It’s like, hey, they do it and we do it, in all fairness. They do it and we do it.”
The president’s comments come after U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said Trump had spoken to Putin and other Russian leaders on Monday, and they had denied sharing intelligence with Iran.
“So, you know, we can take them at their word,” Witkoff told CNBC’s Money Movers during an interview on Tuesday. “Let’s hope that they’re not sharing.”
“I can tell you that yesterday, on the call with the president, the Russians said they have not been sharing,” he added. “That’s what they said.”
Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, held a separate phone call Monday morning with Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy advisor, he said. Ushakov had also said that Russia is not sharing intelligence with Iran, according to Witkoff.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also told reporters earlier this week that Trump and Witkoff had told the Russians that if intelligence sharing was taking place, “It’s not something they would be happy with, and they hope that it is not taking place.”
It comes after reports suggested that Russia could earn more than $10 billion in additional oil and gas revenues to help fuel its war on Ukraine, thanks to Trump’s lifting of restrictions on countries buying Russian crude stranded at sea.
The president decided on the closure of the key shipping route, the Strait of Hormuz, which sent prices soaring to over $120.
However, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed the 30-day waiver would “not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government”.
He said the “tailored, short-term” move would only provide Moscow with a limited financial boost from oil sales, adding that it would address the “instability posed by the terrorist Iranian regime”.
