Trump promised Putin world's most beautiful women and said he was huge fan of Russian president, shows letters
Before Donald Trump became the president of the United States, he was a huge fan of Vladimir Putin — and once even promised him "the world’s most beautiful women" if Putin accepted his invitation to attend a Miss Universe pageant he organized in Moscow. Trump tried to associate himself with Putin a number of times, according to a new trove of documents released by the Senate Intelligence Committee following its investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
While the messages were not able to prove any collusion between the Trump campaign and Kremlin, it did reveal how much the former real estate mogul admired the Russian president. "As you have probably heard, I’m a big fan of yours," the future president gushed in one of the letters. In the correspondence, Trump showered praise on Putin, also congratulating him on being named Time's ‘Person of the Year’ in 2007. "Congratulations," he wrote. "You definitely deserve it."
Another letter saw the former reality TV mogul try to convince Putin to attend the 2013 Miss Universe pageant. "I know that our Moscow pageant will be our biggest and best Miss Universe ever," he wrote of the event.
"We turned down many other competing countries in favor of Russia," Trump continued, before inviting Putin to be his ‘guest of honor.‘ "I know you will have a great time," he added. At the bottom of the letter was a handwritten note with the following written in Trump's signature writing style: 'The World's Most Beatiful Women!'
Putin, however, could not attend the pageant. He sent a senior Kremlin official instead. Nonetheless, the Russian president did respond to Trump's letter. As reported by Business Insider:
Dear Mr. Trump, I would like to congratulate you and your colleagues on successfully holding the Miss Universe contest in Moscow. I hope that all the participants in this remarkable event will go home with good memories of their visit to the Russian capital.
It is a pity we were not able to have our meeting, but I hope we will be able to talk during one of your visits to Russia. Yours sincerely, V. Putin.
The letters were part of a nearly 1,000-page report of the Russian probe released by the Senate Intelligence Committee. The document, which is likely the final report, also detailed how Trump requested associate Felix Sater to give Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump a tour of Moscow to explore opportunities for the Trump Organization.
"My kids are going there; I'd feel a lot more comfortable if you were there looking after them," Trump reportedly asked Sater, who, in turn, assigned the task to a "close friend."
The 'close friends' gave the Trumps and Sater a tour of Kremlin and apparently Ivanka even sat on Putin's chair. "But then afterwards the curator and translator, once we finished going through some of the Museum-quality rooms, as we're passing, the security guard says: That's the boss's room. And he opens it and he shows an office," Sater told the committee. "At that point, Ivanka said: 'Can I sit down behind the chair?'"
Sater then allegedly told the guard: "Just trust me; she's the daughter of a VIP from the US. what's she going to do, steal his pen?"
"And I convinced him to let her sit in the chair. She sat in the chair, spun around two or three times, said 'Wow,' walked out, and that was it. Then later we went to dinner," he concluded.