Russia State Reporter Calls Out Trump for Peddling 'Deep State Propaganda'

A reporter with Russian state media who also worked for several American outlets accused former President Donald Trump of peddling "deep state propaganda" after he suggested a number of Russian-made missiles that hit targets in Poland came from Russia.

In a social media post Tuesday night, Lee Stranahan—a onetime writer for conservative outlet Breitbart News who now works with Russian state media outlet Sputnik Radio—highlighted comments Trump made during his announcement of his 2024 run for president speculating it was Russia that fired missiles into the NATO-allied country earlier in the day as an example of Democratic President Joe Biden's weakness on the world stage.

"Just today, a missile was sent in—probably by Russia—to Poland, 50 miles into Poland, and people are going absolutely wild and crazy, and they are not happy," Trump said Tuesday night. "They are very angry."

Biden, he said, "is leading us to the brink of nuclear war, a concept unimaginable two short years ago. You cannot mention the nuclear word. It is too devastating."

As it turned out, however, Trump's speculation appears to be incorrect.

If true, a Russian missile strike on NATO-allied targets would have represented a major escalation of the war in Ukraine that would have drawn NATO, and presumably the United States, into the war—a prospect some described as potentially leading to a third world war.

Shortly after Tuesday's strikes, Russia's defense ministry denied reports it was their missiles that had hit Polish territory, describing Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky's allegations of an intentional strike as "a deliberate provocation aimed at escalating the situation."

"No strikes on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish state border were made by Russian means of destruction," it said in a statement.

Prior to Trump's speech, Biden himself Tuesday night expressed doubt that the missiles came from Russia. And on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported Poland's president, Andrezj Duda, released a statement saying the missile blast that killed two Polish citizens appeared to be an "unfortunate accident" rather than an "intentional attack."

Stranahan, a former supporter of Trump's during his time at Breitbart News, accused him of buying into false narratives about the attack, describing him as "Ukraine's b****" for not questioning them.

Prior to Trump's speech, global officials had tread carefully around accusing Russia of launching a deliberate attack on a NATO-allied country, while Russian state media itself had published reports seeking to resolve allegations of Russian escalation of the war and likening the Poland incident to the misunderstandings that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis between the U.S. and Russia in 1962.

"I will call Donald Trump out for spreading disinformation," Stranahan wrote on Twitter. "No Russian misled according to locals who say the missile came from Ukraine but Trump says it was 'probably sent in by Russia.'"

"He falls for deep state propaganda every time when it's not about him," he added. "He is Ukraine's b****."

Newsweek has contacted Trump's office for comment.