OPINION:
In the case of President Trump’s relationship with the Kremlin, history is not just rhyming; it is repeating itself.
Last month, news broke that Russian businessman Umar Kremlev contributed a considerable sum of money to the wedding celebration of the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
It was a sequel — in the tradition of the old KGB, now operating as the FSB — to the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting. In that meeting, Mr. Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort met with alleged FSB-connected lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, former Soviet military officer Rinat Akhmetshin, and pop star Emin Agalarov.
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Mr. Agalarov’s father is a real estate mogul with close ties to Russian ruler Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin-connected Russians tempted Mr. Trump Jr. with an email from a British publicist, who dangled the possibility of acquiring incriminating information on the Clinton campaign. That is a classic KGB trap known as kompromat, or compromising material, which involves offering the unwitting target something valuable at no cost or risk.
Now Mr. Putin has run back the same playbook against Mr. Trump Jr., who should have known from his experience 10 years ago that “free cheese,” as the Russians are fond of saying, “can be found only in a mousetrap.”
The idea of involving Mr. Kremlev likely originated in the Kremlin or one of Mr. Putin’s spy agencies. There is no chance that Mr. Kremlev would have bankrolled or even attended Mr. Trump Jr.’s wedding celebration without prior approval from the Kremlin.
Mr. Kremlev, a native of Tajikistan, has a decidedly checkered past. He was a member of a notorious biker gang and, while serving as president of the International Boxing Association, had ethical conflicts with the International Olympic Committee.
He has a well-known, close relationship with Mr. Putin, who awarded him the Russian Order of Friendship.
Mr. Kremlev reportedly initiated contact with Mr. Trump Jr. years ago and used mutual interests in boxing and hunting to establish trust and rapport.
Therein lies Mr. Putin’s strategy, which put Mr. Trump Jr. and his wife on their back foot, defending their decision to accept a lavish wedding gift from a dodgy, high-profile Kremlin insider, whom they called a “friend.”
Sen. John Curtis, Utah Republican, called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to subpoena Mr. Trump Jr. (and for good measure, Hunter Biden) to investigate “the use of presidential family relationships for private financial benefit.”
Democrats must be champing at the bit to dispute Mr. Kremlev’s public statement that he has “never discussed political matters with any of his American friends and acquaintances.”
President Trump said his son repaid Mr. Kremlev, but that is beside the point.
A true clandestine operation designed to establish a secret relationship with Mr. Trump Jr. would never have begun with an easily traceable email followed by a meeting at one of the highest-profile locations on the planet.
The whole point of that meeting and wedding celebration payment was for the interaction between Mr. Trump Jr. and nefarious Putin-connected Russians to be discovered, with tangible evidence.
There is nothing quite like a Kremlin-inspired controversy to pit American politicians against one another and undermine efforts to build bipartisan consensus.
Meanwhile, Mr. Putin continues to rain hell down on Ukrainian civilians with drones and ballistic missiles.
He tried to use a jet-powered drone to blow up a train with former high-level European leaders and retired Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, my former boss at the CIA, on board. He regularly launches hybrid warfare attacks on European infrastructure and violates NATO members’ airspace.
According to the FBI, his operatives have tried to kill Russian dissidents in the U.S.
Democrats and Republicans should take a moment to consider the Russian leader’s deeper motives here. While rightly criticizing Mr. Trump Jr.’s irretrievably poor judgment, they must remember that our common enemy sits in the Kremlin and has us all in his crosshairs.
What scares Mr. Putin the most? Democracy.
He will not end his war on Ukraine until we force him to do so. We will not manage it with commercial incentives or an invitation to the Group of 20, but rather with military support to Ukraine (especially air defense) and increased pressure on Russia’s teetering economy.
After a mea culpa from Mr. Trump Jr., the Trump administration’s most sensible response to this KGB wedding party caper is to implement the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. It authorizes tariffs of up to 100% on countries that import Russian oil and gas, includes new sanctions on Russia’s shadow fleet, and targets Russian oligarchs and banks that finance Russia’s military.
• Daniel N. Hoffman is a retired clandestine services officer and former chief of station with the Central Intelligence Agency. His combined 30 years of government service included high-level overseas and domestic positions at the CIA. He has been a Fox News contributor since May 2018. He can be reached at danielhoffman@yahoo.com. All statements of fact, opinion or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or endorsement of the CIA or any other U.S. government agency.
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