Donald Trump may not have gotten to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at his Moscow Miss Universe pageant – but he did get a sealed letter hand delivered to New York, a new book reveals.
Trump expressed repeated hopes that Putin would be able to make it to Miss Universe when he held the pageant he owned in Moscow in 2013.
Trump partnered with Russian developer and oligarch Aras Agalarov, who paid millions for the event held in the Crocus City Hall he owned.
Putin was a no-show, dispatching a top deputy in lieu of appearing. But according to a new book, ‘Russian Roulette,’ when the 2013 pageant was over, the billionaire Agalarov’s daughter brought a sealed letter from Putin.
PEN PAL: Russian President Vladimir Putin sent Donald Trump a note contained in a lacquered box after the Miss Universe pageant
She delivered the letter to the Miss Universe headquarters in New York. She bore what was described as a gift, according to ‘Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump.’
According to the book: ‘It was a black lacquered box. Inside was a sealed letter from the Russian autocrat. What the letter said has never been revealed.’
The letter came after a series of pleas and inquiries by Trump, who hoped Putin would visit during the event. Trump spent just a single night in Moscow for the event – famously staying at the Moscow Ritz, where unsubstantiated events are described in the Steele dossier.
Some of Trump’s entreaties to Putin appeared online. ‘Do you think Putin will be going to the Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow — if so, will he become my new best friend?’ Trump wrote on Twitter several months before the pageant.
Once in Moscow, he got a message from Agalarov that, ‘Mr. Putin would like to meet Mr. Trump’ according to the book.
ON THE SAME PAGE: Putin wasn’t able to attend the pageant, but sent a hand-delivered note, according to a new book
President Donald Trump (R) and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin talk as they make their way to take the “family photo” during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit in the central Vietnamese city of Danang on November 11, 2017.nWorld leaders and senior business figures are gathering in the Vietnamese city of Danang this week for the annual 21-member APEC summit
Gabriela Isler on the stage during the Miss Universe Pageant Competition 2013 on November 9, 2013 in Moscow, Russia
President Donald Trump (L) and Russia’s president Vladimir Putin talk after a meeting on the closing day of the 25th APEC Summit
Trump continued to ask, ‘Is Putin coming?’
What Trump ended up getting was a phone call from Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, who is close to Putin.
If it was a let-down, it may have been mitigated by what British music publicist Rob Goldstone told him.
‘If you get a call from Peskov, it’s like you’re getting a call from Putin,’ Goldstone said.
Trump told MSBNC anchor Thomas Roberts: ”I know for a fact that he wants very much to come.’ Trump said of Putin: ‘But we’ll have to see. We haven’t heard yet, but we have invited him.’
Trump’s Putin infatuation made it onto the ‘Late Show’ with David Letterman. ‘He’s a tough guy. I met him once,’ Trump said, although there isn’t a record of that happening.
Aras Agalarov, Sheila Agalarova and Irina Agalarova attend the record launch of Emin at Stephan Weiss Studio on November 27, 2012 in New York City. The tycoon’s daughter Sheila delivered the letter
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin (L front) and US president Donald Trump before a photo session of world leaders on the closing day of the 25th APEC Summit. Mikhail Metzel/TASS
In July 2014, Trump told CPAC Putin had sent him a ‘beautiful’ gift.
‘You know, I was in Moscow a couple months ago, I own the Miss Universe pageant and they treated me so great,’ Trump told the conservative confab. ‘Putin even sent me a present, beautiful present, with a beautiful note. I spoke to all of his people. You look at what he’s doing with President Obama he’s like toying with him. He’s toying with him,’ Buzzfeed reported two years later.
By July 2016, in the midst of the presidential election, Trump was downplaying the relationship.
‘I don’t know what it means by having a relationship. I mean, he was saying very good things about me. But I don’t have a relationship with him,’ Trump told ABC News.
According to the book, the show was anticipating a Putin visit, and the two hosts even learned to say a few words in Russian to welcome him.
In the end, Putin sent senior aide Vladimir Kozhin. Peskov told Trump, according to the book, that Putin wanted to come, but there was a traffic problem with another pair of high-profile guests who were in town: King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands.
The book descries it as a crushing disappointment for Trump, who nevertheless pondered putting the word out that he came anyway. ‘No one will know for sure if he came or not,’ Trump reportedly said.