‘If It Walks Like A Duck’: Former Tory Minister Defends Claiming Trump Could Be ‘Russian Asset’

A former Tory minister has defended claiming that Donald Trumpcould be a “Russian asset”.

Graham Stuart posted his theory on X last week after America paused its military aid to Ukraine.

He said: “We have to consider the possibility that President Trump is a Russian asset.

“If so, Trump’s acquisition is the crowning achievement of [Vladimir] Putin’s FSB career – and Europe is on its own.”

Stuart’s comments also came after Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, berated Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House.

Appearing on the BBC’s Politics Live programme on Monday, Stuart was asked if he stood by his claims.

He said: “Well if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck. What we’ve got is a president who is making absolutely no demands of the aggressor, the dictator, the man who has subverted Russian society and seeks on a daily basis to subvert our society, as we’ve seen over the years.

“And yet is making demand after demand and giving insults and abuse to the victim, the sovereign nation of Ukraine with its heroic president. And therefore, it’s hard not to have it as a possibility.”

Stuart admitted he had “no hard and fast evidence” to back up his claim, but said Trump’s behaviour throughout his life made him vulnerable to be “subverted” by the Putin and the Russian security services.

He said: “You’ve got to ask yourself whether … his dealings in the 80s or indeed his personal deportment, which you can only imagine at certain times in or outside Russia, might have left him vulnerable to the compromising of a man who was a KGB agent – that’s what Putin did for the whole of his professional career, he sought to subvert people, turn them to his will.  

“If he wanted to do that now, what more could he possibly ask of Trump than what Trump is doing?”