Ex-Fox Analyst Ralph Peters On Trump: ‘I Just Think The Russians Have The Goods On This Guy’

Last month, former Fox News strategic analyst Ralph Peters — who left Fox earlier this year over what he said was the network becoming a Trump “propaganda machine” — said that he felt Russian President Vladimir Putin has a “grip” on President Trump. He has now doubled down on that sentiment while stating that Trump is doing the Kremlin’s bidding by trashing NATO.

Telling CNN’s Anderson Cooper that Trump’s claim that NATO members owe the US money over defense commitments is “on many levels false,” Peters went on to say that not only is the president throwing red meat to his base with these statements but that “with Trump virtually every trail for me leads to the Kremlin.”

“And you’re saying this leads to the Kremlin in what way?” Cooper asked.

“In the sense that Trump is, for whatever reason, and I have my own suspicions, certainly, Trump is both enamored and fearful of Vladimir Putin,” the retired lieutenant colonel responded. “If you look at his pattern, he is afraid to say anything critical of Vladimir Putin. It’s another issue, but to me i just think the Russians have the goods on this guy, and that’s the only explanation I can come up with.”

He would go on to say that Trump is doing “real damage” by attacking America’s allies, adding that Trump is “indisputably brilliant” at propaganda techniques by pointing to the president claiming Germany is “captive to Russia.”

Peters would end the segment by praising German Chancellor Angela Merkel, calling her a great leader and declaring how he wished we had her rather that a “malevolent fool.”

Watch the clip above, via CNN.