WASHINGTON (AP), Vladimir Putin didn't pay much attention to Fiona Hill. She was a prominent U.S. expert in Russia and was seated next him at dinners. Putin's people chose her because she was a nondescript female, to ensure that the Russian president wouldn't have any competition for his attention.
In Russian fluent, she would often listen to the conversations of men and write it down later. She thought, "Hello, if you were a man, you wouldn't be speaking like this in front me." But go ahead. Im listening.
Hill didn't expect to be as invisible when she became a Russia advisor for Donald Trump. Hill, who co-authored an acclaimed book on Putin, could see inside his head. Trump didn't want her advice. In meeting after meeting, he ignored her. He once mistakenly called her darlin and mistook her for a secretary.
She was still listening, however. She was reading Trump as if she had read Putin.
Her book, There Is Nothing For You Here, was published last week. She is not obsessed with the scandalous, unlike other tell-all authors in the Trump administration. The book is a much more serious and alarming portrait than her riveting testimony at Trump's first impeachment.
Hills' tone can be restrained but it is still damning by a thousand cuts. This exposes how Hills' career of understanding and managing Russia's threat turned into the revelation that America is most at risk from within.
She describes in fly-on the-wall detail a president who had a voracious appetite to praise others and little or no desire to govern. U.S. relations were affected by how flattering foreign leaders made their remarks.
Trump demanded attention from his staff and all those who were part of his circle, she writes. Particularly in international affairs the president's vanity and fragile self-esteem was a sign of acute vulnerability.
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Hill described Putin's manipulation of Trump through withholding or offering compliments. She said this was a more effective tactic than blackmailing and dirting him. Hill nearly lost the meeting in Finland when Trump seemed to be siding with Putin on Russian interference in 2016's U.S. elections.
She writes that I wanted to end it all. I thought about throwing up or pretending to have a seizure, and then hurling myself backwards into the crowd of journalists in front. It would have only added to the humiliating spectacle.
She saw in Trump a rare, but ultimately untapped talent. Trump spoke the language of many people and disdained certain things. He also liked the same foods, didn't need a filter, and laughed at the stale norms of the elite. Trump was pitching steel and coal jobs, at least that was his impression, while Hillary Clinton was sipping champagne with donors.
She told AP that he clearly felt what people wanted. He was able to talk the talk, even though he could not walk the walk of experiencing their lives. He understood it.
She felt that this skill was wasted. It could have been used for mobilizing people for good but it was instead used in service to himself, Me the People, as the chapter title states.
Trump's vanity also ended his Helsinki meeting and all chances of a highly sought-after arms control agreement with Russia. Hill writes that the questions at the news conference revealed the depth of Trump's insecurity. Trump might have said that Russia interfered with the election for him if he had done so.
Putin knew that Trump's vague promises would be undermined by the backlash. Hill wrote that Putin told Hill, as he was leaving the conference, to his press secretary within earshot of an interpreter, that the press conference had been a complete failure.
Trump loved Putin's wealth, power, fame and admiration. Hill wrote that Trump was struck by the obvious similarities between the two leaders.
Putin's ability to manipulate Russia's political system to possibly stay in power for an indefinite period of time made an impression. Trump can see that and said that he liked that situation. Hill spoke for the AP.
In late 2019, Trump was impeached in the House for using his influence over Ukraine to undermine Joe Biden. This was among his first attempts to remain in office through unconventional means. It included the Jan. 6 insurrection by a mob that he had instructed to fight like hell.
Hill was the Russian national intelligence officer from 2006 to 2009, and was highly respected within Washington circles. However, she was only introduced to the nation during the impeachment hearings. Her testimony that Hill had sent his envoys into Ukraine for a domestic political matter that had nothing to do the national security policy was one of the most damaging against President Obama.
In her testimony, she began by recounting her unlikely journey as the daughter a coal miner in northeast England. She then went on to describe her extraordinary journey to the White House. She explained that she wanted to serve in a country that has given her opportunities I would not have in England.
Her new book is a continuation of that personal journey. It's a story told with humor and kindness, but it's not self-deprecating. Hill, the Brookings Institution scholar, weaves in a study about the changes she saw over the years as a child living in Britain, as a researcher and student in Russia, and finally as an American citizen.
Due in part to the demise of heavy industry, the changes occurring in these three countries are strikingly similar. It has created a "crisis of opportunity," which she describes as the rise populist leaders such as Trump, Putin and Boris Johnson who are able to tap into the grievances and fears of those left behind.
She claimed that she was worried about Russia's actions when she entered the White House. However, after watching everything closely, she realized that the real problem was the United States... and that the Russians were simply exploiting everything."
Hill refers to Russia as America's Ghost of Christmas Future. This is because the U.S. cannot heal its political divisions.
She said that President Joe Biden, who hails from a civilized form of politics is trying to unite the country and improve its reputation abroad. But he's a man standing alone, and people aren't pulling behind him.
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This report was contributed by Nathan Ellgren, an AP video journalist.
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