The longtime Russia expert explains why Elon Musk, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are all talking to each other.
The news of the past few weeks has included some developments that on their own could seem minor: Since he left office, Donald Trump has held a half-dozen phone calls with Vladimir Putin. Elon Musk is also talking regularly to the Russian leader. A couple of newspaper owners decided their newspapers’ editorial boards shouldn’t make an endorsement in the presidential election.
But for Fiona Hill, the former Trump adviser who is one of the world’s top experts on Russia and Putin, these events create a worrisome pattern.
In an interview with POLITICO Magazine, Hill, like other scholars and historians with an expertise in autocratic regimes, said she sees the American political system already drifting into autocracy, even before Trump is potentially elected. A key sign is that members of the country’s billionaire class are acting more and more like oligarchs.
If I had a single private phone call with Putin I’d have lost my security clearance before I hung up the phone.