{"id":7458,"date":"2026-08-26T14:37:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T14:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7458"},"modified":"2026-08-26T14:37:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T14:37:47","slug":"trump-plays-coy-about-purpose-of-cia-directors-mystery-trip-to-moscow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7458","title":{"rendered":"Trump plays coy about purpose of CIA director’s mystery trip to Moscow"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Trump insisted Wednesday that CIA Director John Ratcliffe\u2019s surprise trip to Moscow wasn\u2019t to warn President Vladimir Putin not to \u201ctest NATO resolve\u201d or \u201cstrike England\u201d after the Cabinet official\u2019s unannounced four-hour visit on Tuesday launched rampant speculation.<\/p>\n

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Radio host Glenn Beck asked Trump about theories that Ratcliffe visited Tuesday to discuss Iran sanctions or caution Putin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, none of the above. He\u2019s there, you know, on very sort of semi-routine \u2014 I hate to disappoint people,\u201d Trump replied.<\/p>\n

The president insinuated that Ratcliffe was discussing long-stalled efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to see the war with Ukraine end. That\u2019s a war would have never started, Glenn,\u201d Trump went on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were president \u2026 you wouldn\u2019t have had the war with Ukraine, and you wouldn\u2019t have had 25 million people coming into our country like they did. Just come in like we were a bunch of fools. It was so sad,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Ratcliffe is a fantastic guy. He\u2019s the head of the CIA, and he is not in there for any of the things that you said. Now something may come out, you know, out of it. We\u2019re working very hard to get that war ended, and frankly, they both want to see it ended at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ratcliffe\u2019s visit was the first known trip to Russia by a CIA director since William Burns visited in late 2021 as US intelligence indicated Russia intended to invade Ukraine, which it did the following February. <\/p>\n

That history spurred speculation that the US might be warning Russia against some looming action.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

There also were theories that Ratcliffe wanted to discuss the newly launchedOperation Economic Outcast, which aims to sever Iran\u2019s economic ties with countries such as China and Russia to force a nuclear deal to end that war.<\/p>\n

Ratcliffe is one of Trump\u2019s most trusted advisers and has been heavily involved with the Iran conflict<\/strong>, winning the president\u2019s praise for secretive CIA operations in the early phase of fighting.<\/p>\n

Russia-Ukraine peace efforts have been, to date, handled primarily by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump son-in-law, who traveled to Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin in January.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speculation over Ratcliffe is heightened due to secrecy around Trump\u2019s departure from the annual NATO conference in Turkey last month \u2014 with a publicly announced plane swap purportedly to let US troops tour the new Air Force One followed by a second secret transfer due to intelligence on Iranian threats.<\/p>\n

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President Trump insisted Wednesday that CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s surprise trip to Moscow wasn’t to warn President Vladimir Putin not to “test NATO resolve” or “strike England” after the Cabinet official’s unannounced four-hour visit on Tuesday launched rampant speculation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump plays coy about purpose of CIA director's mystery trip to Moscow - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7458\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump plays coy about purpose of CIA director's mystery trip to Moscow - 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