The Trump transition team has confirmed that a letter from Moscow, Kremlin , dated December 15, was received by Donald Trump reports Al Jazeera News . Trump reportedly responded by referring to the letter, which contained Christmas wishes and wishes for success for Trump, by calling the letter “very nice.” The Washington Post reports that Donald Trump has also publicly thanked Vladimir Putin for attacking his political opponent, Hillary Clinton.
It is unclear if any other enemy nation-state of the United States has also sent Christmas wishes to Donald Trump. But Trump does appear pleased to have heard from Vladimir Putin over the holidays. The letter discusses Russian President Vladimir Putin’s desire for the United States and Russia to become friendlier and reads the following.
“Please accept my warmest Christmas and New Year greetings. Serious global and regional challenges, which our countries have to face in recent years, show that the relations between Russia and the U.S. remain an important factor in ensuring stability and security of the modern world…Please accept my sincere wishes to you and your family of sound health, happiness, well being, success, and all the best. Sincerely, V. Putin.”
Trump Transition releases what it says is a letter from Putin. Trump says he agrees & hopes “we do not have to travel an alternate path.” pic.twitter.com/1kBvwg8zVQ
— Olivier Knox (@OKnox) December 23, 2016
Trump thought the letter was “very nice” reports Al Jazeera News . The Washington Post is also reporting that Donald Trump has publicly thanked Vladimir Putin for publicly slamming former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Vladimir Putin recently went on the record to say that the Liberals did not lose the election with dignity and grace. Although, the Liberals have been working very diligently, and continue to do so, to get to the bottom of the Russia hacking of Elections 2016.
But, Donald Trump agrees with Vladimir Putin. And after Putin went on the record to slam Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump tweeted, “So true!”
Vladimir Putin said today about Hillary and Dems: “In my opinion, it is humiliating. One must be able to lose with dignity.” So true!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 24, 2016
Many political leaders are very uncomfortable with the approval of “trash talking” Hillary Clinton and of the seemingly closer alignment between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Former Independent Presidential candidate Evan McMullin has called on GOP leaders to condemn Trump’s alliance with Vladimir Putin, saying that a failure to do so is a failure of the leadership to the American people.
So now the President-elect and an autocrat in the Kremlin team up to trash an American. Unprecedented. Will Republicans speak up? https://t.co/Vef1g5tiFK
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) December 24, 2016
Republican leaders must condemn @realDonaldTrump ‘s alliance with Putin, a foreign adversary who is actively undermining our democracy. https://t.co/7q0OkzNF2T
— Evan McMullin ?? (@EvanMcMullin) December 24, 2016
Evan McMullin calls on GOP leaders to condemn Trump’s “alliance with Putin”, says if they don’t they’ll “fail the American people”. pic.twitter.com/fSXSFELoHp
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 24, 2016
The public attacking of Hillary Clinton came only hours after the Trump team released the Christmas wishes from the Kremlin. The Washington Post reported that Trump’s thoughts on the letter were, “A very nice letter from Vladimir Putin; his thoughts are so correct.”
Not only does Donald Trump seem to think that slamming Hillary Clinton over the holidays is a good idea, but he also agrees with Vladimir Putin that thawed relations between the United States and Russia is a good idea. The Washington Post reports that Trump noted hopes that “we do not have to travel an alternate path.”
The letter has been confirmed by the Kremlin to have been sourced from the Kremlin, with Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stating that the letter was sent “voicing hope for an improvement of bilateral ties.” The letter also comes on the heels of much talk of nuclear arsenals, with comments made by both Trump and Putin expressing a need to strengthen those arsenals.
The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2016
The Washington Post notes that Putin finds “nothing unusual” about Trump’s desires to strengthen nuclear arsenals. The United States currently has access to approximately 7,000 nuclear warheads, making it second only to Russia who currently leads the world in that area by only “a few hundred more” reports the Washington Post .
But the nuclear arsenal capacities of the United States are aging, and many of them are expected to no longer be useful within the next decade. It would cost the United States approximately $1 trillion over 30 years to strengthen them.
[Featured Image by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Images]