HERE YA GO, VLAD

Trump Plot for Stunning New Gift to Putin Exposed

The president wants to lift sanctions on the Kremlin’s slush fund.

Donald Trump is weighing a plum new gift to Vladimir Putin that would allow the Russian tyrant to strengthen the Kremlin’s influence around the world.

Officials are looking at axing measures against the multibillion-dollar Russian Direct Investment Fund that Moscow has long used as a tool of economic and diplomatic leverage abroad, The New York Times reports.

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The Biden administration sanctioned the sovereign wealth fund in response to Putin’s full-scale 2022 invasion of Ukraine as “a slush fund” for the Kremlin that was “emblematic of Russia’s broader kleptocracy.” The fund’s boss, Kirill Dmitriev, has close ties with Putin and his family and has met repeatedly with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, including on a trip to Miami last year.

Talk of reversing restrictions on the RDIF comes amid a growing thaw in relations with Moscow as Trump pushes for an end to the Ukraine conflict.

But it marks the latest in a series of concessions that critics warn have little, if anything, to do with moving negotiations toward a lasting peace.

And White House relations with Ukraine remain at a serious low as President Volodymyr Zelensky accuses Trump and his team of throttling support vital to the country’s frontline defense.

The RDIF is playing a key role in Trump’s shock agreement with Putin earlier this month to purchase more than 2 million tons of Russian diesel.

The U.S. president signed that deal in a frantic bid to lower fuel costs driven up by his own war with Iran.

The conflict and its impact on already widespread unaffordability have dominated voter concerns ahead of next Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Analysts have said the diesel deal will do little to reduce costs in the short term or dent Democrats’ roughly 10-point lead in the race for control of the House and Senate.

U.S. officials have also discussed entering a separate deal with Russian oil giant Lukoil, advancing a Russian-backed natural gas project in Alaska, and pushing Europe into buying more Russian gas.

The Trump administration argues these moves show the way to ending Putin’s four-and-a-half-year invasion of Ukraine by signaling to the Kremlin that the White House is invested in a mutually rewarding future relationship.

But a lack of concrete progress in peace talks so far suggests the president is ceding ground to the Putin regime without securing dependable diplomatic guarantees in return.

Biden-era Russia adviser Eric Green told the Times that any talk of lifting sanctions on the Kremlin slush fund sends “a real strong message that we are relaxing the previous position that we weren’t going to relax the economic sanctions and other costs until there was a settlement in Ukraine.”

Trump’s growing overtures to Putin come in stark contrast to his administration’s increasing pressure on Zelensky.

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The president unilaterally announced an “energy ceasefire” via Truth Social earlier this month without any apparent coordination with either Moscow or Kyiv beforehand.

Ukraine initially stuck by the supposed moratorium on either country attacking the other’s energy infrastructure before reversing course after Russia continued pummeling its power plants and other facilities.

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Zelensky announced the resumed attacks with a fierce retort to Trump, accusing the U.S. leader of kowtowing to the Russian dictator.

“[Trump] speaks about it openly and loudly that he loves such people and he respects such people,” the Ukrainian president told the FT. “Because for him people who can be leaders 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, it means they can be very strong.”

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He also accused U.S. officials of slowing satellite internet coverage vital to frontline drone operations and threatening to withhold military intelligence if Ukraine did not abide by the energy ceasefire.

Trump has denied those claims, called for Zelensky’s ouster, and suggested he prefers negotiating with Putin to dealing with the United States’ nominal ally in the conflict.

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“Zelensky’s not a good guy for us to deal with,” the president told Newsmax earlier this month. “I find Zelensky more difficult to deal with than Putin.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House, the State Department, and the Treasury for comment on this story.

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