Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, said in a podcast clip she posted on Friday that President Donald Trump’s recent steps toward Russia come down to “really three things”: his admiration for strongmen, money, and her belief that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has things on Trump.”
“Why is Trump making so many concessions to Russia now? I think it’s three things,” Clinton wrote in a post on X on Oct. 23. The post carried a 170-second excerpt of “High Stakes,” a limited series Clinton co-hosts with journalist Kara Swisher, from an episode titled “The Accountability Episode” that was released on Oct. 21 on the “On with Kara Swisher” feed.
The clip opens with Swisher asking, “Why do this now?” Clinton began with Trump’s argument about fuel. “I think he made an attempt to link the Ukrainians’ efforts to defend themselves and take the fight to Russia as somehow affecting gas and diesel prices. That’s a total lie,” she said. “The rise in fuel prices is predominantly due to his reckless war, unsuccessful reckless war against Iran,” she added, saying Trump “did try to make a political case” but that “nobody’s taking that seriously.”
Trump laid out that argument on Oct. 18, two days after he signed an executive order waiving most sanctions and tariff duties under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. “Zelenskyy is using Diesel Refineries in Russia as a target, knowing that these attacks are seriously hurting the world diesel markets, including those in the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at 4:36 p.m. EDT that day. He said his decision was “a very simple one” because he did not “want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table,” and that he could sign the sanctions “later, or any time that I want!”
The Senate passed the Graham Act 86-11 on Aug. 7, according to the Senate roll call, and Trump signed it on Sept. 18. It is named for the South Carolina Republican and Trump ally who died on July 11, his office said. The order says Trump certified to Congress that the waivers are “in the national interests of the United States.”
“I think first of all, he remains enamored of strongmen leaders who can do whatever they want, including killing their opponents,” Clinton said of her first reason. “It is truly unbelievable that we have a president who wants to be an authoritarian dictator with all of the unchecked power that that suggests.”
Her second reason was money. “The second thing is he is desperate to make more money by making more deals with Russia,” Clinton said, crediting The Wall Street Journal with covering “what Trump is up to along with his family and his close associates.” She said they wanted “financial deals with Russia, including oil and gas deals, critical mineral deals,” and that, beyond Russian assets such as the oil company Lukoil, it was “also about carving up Ukrainian assets and getting Ukraine to basically give up on the territory that Russia has invaded and held.” She told listeners that “whenever you see Trump doing anything,” they should “follow the money.” She did not identify a specific deal or report in the clip.
The administration has described its Russia energy steps as a tool for ending the war. On Oct. 9 the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License 135, authorizing transactions in Russian-origin diesel through April 7, 2027. “This is a carrot to try to end a war; it’s not an economic lifeline for Russia,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a clip posted by the White House’s Rapid Response account on Oct. 18. In the same Truth Social post, Trump wrote: “I WANT THIS WAR END!”
“And third, I continue to believe that Putin has things on Trump,” Clinton said. “I continue to believe that he is holding photos, videos, whatever it might be.” She linked that belief to “how strongly Trump has fought against the release of the Epstein files,” and predicted that once the files are released, “even the people who supported Trump are going to be shocked by what it shows about Trump.” Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which requires the Justice Department to release its Epstein records, on Nov. 19, 2025, according to a White House notice.
Clinton summed up the three reasons as “wannabe dictator,” “money, money, money,” and “let’s keep Putin happy so he doesn’t dump what he has on me.” The clip closes on the Russian term kompromat, meaning compromising material.
The post was Clinton’s second on Trump and Russia in a week. On Oct. 19, the 10th anniversary of their final 2016 debate, she reposted their “puppet” exchange and listed the administration’s recent steps on Russia. Friday’s post did not include replies in a thread.
As of Saturday, neither Trump nor the White House had responded to the clip on their X accounts, and no White House statement addressing it had been posted.
The calling of Trump’s link between Ukraine’s strikes and fuel prices “a total lie,” the claims that Trump is “desperate to make more money” from Russia deals, and the belief that Putin “has things on Trump” are Clinton’s. She offered no evidence in the clip for compromising material. Trump has publicly tied his sanctions waivers to peace talks and to Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries, and the administration describes the diesel license as an incentive to end the war. The clip does not identify any transaction involving Trump or his family, and the description of Trump as having fought the Epstein files’ release is Clinton’s; he signed the law requiring their release.