Donald Trump turned down Theresa May’s plea for help over Salisbury poisoning

Donald Trump turned down Theresa May’s plea for help over Salisbury poisoning ‘because she was only 95% sure Russia was to blame’

  • Trump told the Prime Minister she had to be 98 per cent certain, new book says
  • The President’s attitude meant it took days for the US to expel Russian diplomats 
  • Sergei and Yulia Skripal survived the Novichok attack in Salisbury in March  

Donald Trump turned down Theresa May’s request for help over the poisoning of Sergei Skripal because she was at first only ’95 per cent sure’ that Moscow was behind it.

He told the Prime Minister she had to be ’98 per cent’ certain, a book claims. The President’s attitude meant it took days for the US to expel 60 Russian diplomats.

The Apprentice: Trump, Russia And The Subversion Of American Democracy’ by Washington Post journalist Greg Miller, also claims that Vladimir Putin has Mr Trump under such control that he ‘whispers conspiratorially’ to him on the phone.

The President’s attitude meant it took days for the US to expel 60 Russian diplomats

President Putin plays to Mr Trump’s fears that he is being undermined by a secret ‘deep state’, the book says. ‘Again and again [Trump] would belittle America’s closest allies – Australia, Britain, Canada, France and Germany – all the while praising Russia’s strongman,’ Miller writes.

Mrs May requested Mr Trump’s help in March after Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with novichok, a Russian nerve agent, in Salisbury.

Two weeks ago Scotland Yard named two men working for Russian intelligence it believes carried out the attack.

Donald Trump turned down Theresa May’s request for help over the poisoning of Sergei Skripal because she was at first only ‘95 per cent sure’ that Moscow was behind it, a book claims

Donald Trump turned down Theresa May’s request for help over the poisoning of Sergei Skripal because she was at first only ’95 per cent sure’ that Moscow was behind it, a book claims

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