In an attempt to clean up Donald Trump’s praise of Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a “genius” for invading Ukraine, Fox News host Pete Hegseth on Tuesday suggested that the former US president is just pretending to be submissive to the Russian leader to “troll the media.”
Speaking with fellow right-wing commentator Jesse Watters, Hegseth dismissed criticism Trump has received for gushing about Putin by claiming he was only doing it to get a reaction out of the American media.
“Vladimir Putin lives rent-free in the minds of our media,” he said in a video highlighted by Raw Story. “No entity has done more to spread Russian propaganda and to prop up the strongman that is Vladimir Putin than our own media. And Donald Trump was happy to troll them on it, as he continues to do to this moment.”
Of course, Hegseth failed to acknowledge that Trump regularly praised Putin before and during his presidency and that he has also praised North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, whose “love letters” he brought with him to his home in Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House.
Watch the video below.
