Russian President Vladimir Putin said he believes President-elect Donald Trump ‘is still not entirely safe’ from assassination attempts (Pictures: EPA/Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has opined that US President-elect Donald Trump is not safe from more assassination attempts.
Putin uttered the ominous words on Thursday while giving an outlook on relations between Moscow and Washington, DC.
The dictator praised Trump for his historic 2024 election victory amid not one but two assassination attempts.
‘Uncivilized means were employed against Trump, absolutely uncivilized, including attempts on his life, more than once,’ said Putin following an international summit in Kazakhstan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking to the media after the summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Thursday (Picture: AP)
‘By the way, in my opinion, he is not safe now.’
While expressing that he believes Trump ‘is still not entirely safe’, Putin noted that ‘there have been various instances in the United States’ of attempts to kill a sitting president.
‘Unfortunately, in the history of the United States various incidents have happened,’ Putin said.
‘I think he is intelligent and I hope he’s cautious and understands this.’
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage by Secret Service agents after being grazed by a bullet during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania (Photo by (Picture: Getty Images)
Trump is the fourteenth American president to suffer an assassination attempt. Over 160 years, four commander-in-chiefs have been killed – Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F Kennedy.
Trump survived after his ear was grazed by a bullet at his outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. With blood coming out of his ear, Trump raised a fist and mouthed, ‘Fight!’ as Secret Service agents covered him on the ground.
An iconic photo of that moment became the cover image of Trump’s book Save America, published in early September.
Then in mid-September, another man was caught pointing a rifle from the bushes of Trump’s Florida golf course as he was on the greens.
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens during a remote ceremony to open a branch of the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University at Omsk State University from the Akorda presidential residence in Astana, Kazakhstan (Picture: Rex Features)
Shortly after the incident, Trump continued on the campaign trail and handed out burgers at a Bitcoin bar in New York City, where he said he felt ‘very safe’ and that his security detail was ‘presidential level’.
In his speech proclaiming victory in the November election, Trump referred back to the assassination attempts.
‘Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason,’ he said.
‘And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness, and now we are going to fulfill that mission together. We’re going to fulfill that.’
Putin added that he thinks Trump will ‘discover a solution’ to Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine ‘especially after enduring such, shall we say, a significant challenge as the battle to reclaim the White House’.
Trump has not yet provided much detail on how he plans to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.