Letters from an American - March 2, 2025

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

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March 2nd, 2025. On February 28th, the same day that President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance took the side of Russian President Vladimir Putin against Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, Martin Matyshchak of The Record, a cybersecurity news publication, broke the story that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered U.S. cyber command to stop all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions. Both the scope of the directive and its duration are unclear. On Face the Nation this morning, Representative Mike Turner, a Republican of Ohio, a strong supporter of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, and Ukraine, contradicted that information.

Considering, what I know, what Russia is currently doing against the United States, that would, I'm certain, not be an accurate statement of the current status against the United States. That would, I'm certain, not be an accurate statement of the current status of the United States operations," he said. Well respected on both sides of the aisle, Turner was in line to be the chair of the House Intelligence Committee in this Congress, until House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican of Louisiana, removed him from that slot and from the Intelligence Committee altogether. And yet, as Stephanie Kershgashner of The Guardian notes, the Trump administration has made clear that it no longer sees Russia as a cybersecurity threat. Last week at a United Nations working group on

cybersecurity, representatives from the European Union and the United Kingdom highlighted threats from Russia, while Liesl Frans, the State Department's Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Cybersecurity, did not mention Russia, saying the US was concerned about threats from China and Iran. Kirsch Geisner also noted that under Trump, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, which monitors cyber threats against critical infrastructure, has set new priorities. Although Russian threats, especially those against US election systems, were a top priority for the agency in the past, A source told Kirchgeisner that analysts were told not to follow or report on Russian threats. Russia and China are our biggest adversaries, the source told Kirchgeisner.

With all the cuts being made to different agencies, a lot of cybersecurity personnel have been fired. Our systems are not going to be protected, and our adversaries know this. People are saying Russia is winning, the source said. Putin is on the inside now." Another source noted that, there are dozens of discreet Russia state-sponsored hacker teams dedicated to either producing damage to U.S. government, infrastructure, and commercial interests, or conducting information theft with a key goal of maintaining persistent access to computer systems.

Russia is at least on par with China as the most significant cyber threat," the person added. Under those circumstances, the source said, ceasing to follow and report Russian threats is truly shocking. Trump's outburst in the Oval Office on Friday confirmed that Putin has been his partner in politics since at least 2016. Putin went through a hell of a lot with me, Trump said.

He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia. Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia. You ever hear of that deal? That was a phony Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scam. Hillary Clinton, shifty Adam Schiff. It was a Democrat scam. And he had to go through that. And he did go through it. And we didn't end up in a war. And he went through it. He was accused of all that stuff. He had nothing to do with it. It came out of Hunter Biden's bathroom. Putin went through a hell of a lot with Trump?

It was an odd statement from a U.S. president whose loyalty is supposed to be dedicated to the Constitution and the American people. Trump has made dismissing as a hoax what he calls Russia, Russia, Russia, central to his political narrative. But Russian operatives did, in fact, work to elect him in 2016. A 2020 report from the Republican-dominated Senate Intelligence Committee confirmed that Putin ordered hacks of Democratic computer networks, and at two crucial moments, WikiLeaks, which the Senate committee concluded was allied with the Russians,

dumped illegally obtained emails that were intended to hurt the candidacy of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Trump openly called for Russia to hack Clinton's emails. Russian operatives also flooded social media with disinformation, not necessarily explicitly endorsing Trump, but spreading lies about Clinton to depress democratic turnout, or to rile up those on the right by falsely claiming that Democrats intended to ban the

Pledge of Allegiance, for example. The goal of the propaganda was not simply to elect Trump, it was to pit the far ends of the political spectrum against the middle, tearing the nation apart. Fake accounts on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook drove wedges between Americans over issues of race, immigration, and gun rights. Craig Timberg and Tony Rahm of the Washington Post reported in 2018 that Facebook officials told Congress that the Russian campaign reached 126 million people on Facebook and 20 million on Instagram. That effort was not a one-shot deal. Russians worked to influence the 2020 presidential election too. In 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence

concluded that Putin authorized and a range of Russian government organizations conducted influence operations aimed at denigrating President Joe Biden's candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Donald Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbating socio-political division in the US. But unlike in 2016, the report said, we did not see persistent Russian cyber efforts to gain access to election infrastructure. Moscow used proxies linked to Russian intelligence to push influence narratives, including misleading or unsubstantiated allegations

against President Biden, to US media organizations, US officials, and prominent US individuals, including some close to former President Trump and his administration, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded. In October, 2024, Matthew Olson, head of the Justice Department's National Security Division, warned in an interview with CBS News that Russia was bombarding voters with propaganda to divide Americans before that year's election as well.

Operatives were not just posting fake stories and replying to posts, but were also using AI to manufacture fake videos and laundering to posts, but were also using AI to manufacture fake videos and laundering Russian talking points through social media influencers. Just a month before, news had broken that Russia was funding Tenet Media, a company that hired right-wing personalities Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson, Lauren Southern, Taylor Hansen, and Matt Christensen, who repeated Russian talking points. Now back in office, Trump and MAGA loyalists say that efforts to stop disinformation undermined their right to free speech.

Project 2025, the extremist blueprint for the second Trump administration, denied that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election calling it a Clinton campaign dirty trick and called for ending government efforts to stop disinformation with utmost urgency. The federal government cannot be the arbiter of truth it said. On February 20th Stephen Lee Myers, Julian E. Barnes and and Shira Frenkel of the New York Times reported that the Trump administration is firing or reassigning officials at the FBI and CISA who had worked on protecting elections. That includes those trying to stop foreign propaganda and disinformation, and those combating

cyber attacks and attempts to disrupt voting systems. Independent journalist Marissa Cabas broke the story that two members of the Department of Government Efficiency are now installed at CISA. Edward Corastine, the 19-year-old known as Big Balls, and Kyle Schuette, a 38-year-old software engineer. Kim Zetter of Wired reported that since 2018, CISA has helped state and local election officers around the country assess vulnerabilities in their networks and help secure them. During the 2024 campaign, Trump said repeatedly that he would end the war in Ukraine.

Shortly after the election, a newspaper reporter asked Nikolai Patrushev, who is close to Putin, if Trump's election would mean positive changes from Russia's point of view. Patrushev answered, to achieve success in the elections, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. And, as a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them. Today, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a reporter, The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely aligns with our vision. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson.

It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.