Trump Wrote Putin To Congratulate Him On Being Named TIME Person Of The Year

[demmiblue]

Source: Forbes

Donald Trump wrote Vladimir Putin a personal letter in 2007, congratulating the Russian president on being named “Person of the Year” in TIME magazine, according to a nearly-1,000-page report that the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released Tuesday.

“Dear President Putin,” the letter began. “Congratulations on being named Time magazine’s ‘Man of the Year’—you definitely deserve it. As you probably have heard, I am a big fan of yours! Take care of yourself. With best wishes, Sincerely, Donald J. Trump.” The future U.S. president put his famous signature on the letter with a thick marker, which he also used to underline the words “I am a big fan of yours!”

Trump has long had an interest in Russia, where he has pursued several potential projects. “The idea got off the ground after I sat next to the Soviet ambassador, Yuri Dubinin, at a luncheon,” Trump explained in his 1987 bestseller The Art of the Deal. Even during the 2016 campaign, Trump continued to chase a potential real estate deal in Moscow, with his associates working on the plans while he pursued the presidency.

Trump has also long had an interest in TIME’s “Person of the Year” designation. In 2015, as his presidential campaign was attracting headlines from almost every major outlet in the country, he complained that TIME had picked Angela Merkel as the Person of the Year. “I told you @TIME Magazine would never pick me as person of the year despite being the big favorite,” Trump tweeted. “They picked person who is ruining Germany.”

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2020/08/18/trump-wrote-putin-to-congratulate-him-on-being-named-time-person-of-the-year/

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[Zoonart]

1. What color crayon did he use?

Was it red?

[Mike 03]

2. What's interesting about this (to me) is that it suggests Putin and Trump

had not been introduced to each other by 2007, by which time I would have guessed they would have been on almost a first-name basis. But the letter suggests they had never before met:

As you probably have heard, I am a big fan of yours!

What a geeky, clumsy little note. A fifteen year old writes letters like this to a celebrity idol.

As for the timeline, maybe I need to recheck the book House of Trump, House of Putin by Craig Ungar.

[Dave Starsky]

8. Trump did business with lower-order oligarchs...

Like Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg.

But I'm sure he always heard of, and always dreamt of, being next to the big guy himself, and they probably dangled Pootie out to him like a carrot to get what they wanted from him.

Kind of like groupies slept with Bill Wyman in order to get to Mick.

[CaptYossarian]

3. He should have been as nice to Greta Thunberg.

Of course, if she were a few years older--no, I can't finish what Trump would be thinking.

[Blue Owl]

4. Suck on that for awhile, Rush Limbowel

n/t

[niyad]

5. In wanna-be dictator's own words-"I'm a big fan of yours."

Big fan of a meeting dictator?? Yes. In his own words, over his own signature.


Can anyone tell me why pootie was chosen that year?

[paleotn]

6. Dude...it's NOT a "major award" in the sense you're thinking of...

It's not a sign of "how good you are." Hitler made it once. Joe Stalin twice. Wallis Simpson made it for bringing down a sitting king of Great Britain. Sometimes it's a measure of how evil you are or how royally you've fucked something up. Not necessarily congratulatory worthy.

[littlemissmartypants]

7. Once a moran, always a moran. nt

[mpcamb]

9. A fine example of trump's 5th grade eloquence...