‘Speculation That Was Crazy:’ Glenn Beck Presses Trump on CIA Director’s Visit to Moscow

President Donald Trump, left, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe speak as they depart following a cabinet meeting at Camp David, near Thurmont, Md., Friday, July 31, 2026. (Nathan Howard/Pool Photo via AP)

President Donald Trump claimed CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s mysterious visit to Moscow was “semi-routine,” but did not give specifics.

Trump appeared live on The Glenn Beck Show Wednesday morning, where host Glenn Beck asked a range of questions, including on Dolly Parton, Iran, and Ratcliffe’s much-discussed visit to the Russian capital.

Beck asked Trump about rumors that Ratcliffe’s visit was linked to “crazy” rumors involving Russian dictator Vladimir Putin:

GLENN BECK: Can we put something to rest here because the speculation is crazy.

The CIA director, ours, is in Russia. Rumors are saying Putin is going to test NATO resolve, all the way to speculation that is crazy — he’s going to strike England, all the way to this is maybe the U.S. telling them about Iranian sanctions telling them we’re serious about them.

Can you tell me why our CIA director flew in the middle of the night to meet with the Russians?

DONALD TRUMP: Well none of the above. He’s there on you know very, sort of semi-routine.

I hate to disappoint people. We would like to see the war with Ukraine end. It’s a war would have never started, Glenn, if I was president. That’s one of the negatives of not having it done that way. I think this way is actually turned out to be bigger in many ways.

But you wouldn’t have had the war with Ukraine and you wouldn’t have had 25 million people coming into our country like they did just come in like we were a bunch of fools, it was so sad.

But they you know and I think the number is higher than 25, frankly. But they came in from prisons and they were drug dealers and they were murderers and everything else. And they poured into our country you wouldn’t have had that. But you would not have had the war in Ukraine.

John Ratcliffe is a fantastic guy. He’s the head of CIA and he’s not in there for any of the things that you said. Now something may come out of it. We’re working very hard to get that war ended.

And frankly they both want to see it ended at this point.

Ratcliffe met with Russian intelligence officials during his brief, under-the-radar visit to Moscow on Tuesday — but did not have any face time with Putin, according to reports.

Ratcliffe’s surprise visit was the first known trip to Moscow by a sitting CIA director since November 2021, when then-agency head William Burns visited the Russian capital to warn against the country’s troop build-up ahead of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

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