Putin hired an attractive female translator to 'distract' Trump during a summit, Stephanie Grisham book says
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Tom Porter
Sep 29, 2021, 21:28 IST
President Donald Trump meets Vladimir Putin at a G20 summit in Osaka, Japan on June 28, 2019.
Kremlin Press Office / Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
A book by a former Trump press secretary has new details of a 2019 meeting with Putin.
Per The New York Times, it says an aide thought Putin tried to distract Trump with an attractive woman.
Putin has been said to use mind games and other ploys to secure an advantage in meetings.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin hired an attractive female interpreter to "distract" President Donald Trump at the G20 summit in 2019, a new book by the former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham says.
Her memoir, "I'll Take Your Questions Now," set to be released next week, details Trump and Putin's meeting at the summit in Osaka, Japan, according to The New York Times, which published excerpts from it on Tuesday.
"As the meeting began, Fiona Hill leaned over and asked me if I had noticed Putin's translator, who was a very attractive brunette woman with long hair, a pretty face, and a wonderful figure," Grisham wrote, according to The Times.
"She proceeded to tell me that she suspected the woman had been selected by Putin specifically to distract our president."
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Footage of their meeting at the summit that Insider reviewed showed a translator who matched that description sitting opposite Trump.
A video by the Russian state-backed video agency Ruptly showed Trump watching as the woman translated Putin's words into English.
Other reports and books have detailed attempts by Putin, a former Russian intelligence officer, to outfox Trump in meetings and phone calls.
Greg Miller's 2018 book, "The Apprentice," said Putin sought to exploit what he perceived to be Trump's personal weaknesses and encourage Trump's fears about a "deep state" of US officials plotting against him.
"Stephanie didn't have what it takes and that was obvious from the beginning," Trump said, claiming that she had become "very angry and bitter" after a breakup.
"She had big problems and we felt that she should work out those problems for herself," Trump said. "Now, like everyone else, she gets paid by a radical left-leaning publisher to say bad and untrue things."
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