Russian President Vladimir Putin prayed for Donald Trump after the then-presidential candidate was shot last year, top envoy Steve Witkoff revealed Friday,
Politico reports.
Witkoff, who has visited Moscow twice to hash out the terms of a ceasefire with Ukraine, told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson on his podcast that during his second meeting with Putin, the Russian president recounted his reaction to the attempted assassination of Trump at a campaign rally last summer.
“When the president was shot, he went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed for the president,” Witkoff said of Putin.
Putin “had a friendship with him and he was praying for his friend,” Witkoff explained. He added that he had relayed the sentimental story to Trump, who was “clearly touched.”
Last July, Trump, then the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, was speaking to supporters near Butler, Pennsylvania, when he was grazed by a bullet fired by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.
A Kremlin spokesperson at the time blamed the shooting on Trump’s political adversaries.
Witkoff said Putin also had a “beautiful portrait” commissioned of Trump by a top Russian artist, which he had gifted to Trump.
Trump has long expressed his admiration for Putin, calling him a “genius” and “a strong leader,” among other superlatives, leading his critics to accuse him of being soft on the Kremlin.
