--- title: President Trump Defends Russia Business During Campaign description: President Donald Trump defended his company’s pursuit of business in Russia during his 2016 White House bid. canonical: https://time.com/5467801/trump-russia-campaign/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-30T13:31:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T22:10:09.146Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Defends Pursuit of Russia Business During Campaign og:description: 'Put up zero money, zero guarantees and didn’t do the project' og:url: https://time.com/5467801/trump-russia-campaign/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9343a3071646188/6989404c457a523cb8d60053/trump-russia-business.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Trump Russia Business og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Defends Pursuit of Russia Business During Campaign twitter:description: 'Put up zero money, zero guarantees and didn’t do the project' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9343a3071646188/6989404c457a523cb8d60053/trump-russia-business.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Defends Pursuit of Russia Business During Campaign > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Bloomberg Contributor Nov 30, 2018 1:31 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from the press while departing the White House on November 26, 2018 in Washington, D.C. U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from the press while departing the White House on November 26, 2018 in Washington, D.C. Win McNamee—Getty Images by [Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Bloomberg Contributor Nov 30, 2018 1:31 PM UTC President Donald Trump defended his company’s pursuit of business in Russia during his 2016 White House bid, saying that his dealings there were legal and that they ultimately ended without a project. In an early morning tweet from Argentina, where he’s taking part in the Group of 20 summit, Trump assailed the scrutiny of his business, calling it a “Witch Hunt.” “Put up zero money, zero guarantees and didn’t do the project,” Trump wrote. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1068442531887632384) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1068444287380025344) Trump’s business dealings in Russia took center stage on Thursday right before his departure for the summit in Buenos Aires, when his former personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a project in Moscow in an August 2017 statement to U.S. lawmakers. Cohen admitted that he lied when he said that negotiations for the skyscraper ended in January 2016, when in fact they continued until June that year, after Trump cinched the Republican nomination. Trump Organization considered offering Russian President Vladimir Putin a $50 million penthouse in a planned skyscraper in Moscow to make the building more desirable to rich buyers, according to the Russian-born real estate developer who was broker on the project and discussed it hours after the Cohen guilty plea. Felix Sater, a felon, ex-government informant and former Trump business associate, said Thursday that he came up with the idea as a way to reap extra profit from Trump Tower Moscow, which he said would have brought in as much as $500 million if it had been built. Cohen approved of the idea, Sater said, adding that it came to him while “spitballing” marketing schemes. The Moscow tower deal was scrapped in 2016, though the reasons remain unclear. The Trump Organization didn’t respond to a request for comment Thursday on Sater’s remarks, nor did Cohen or two of his lawyers. Cohen has agreed to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. As part of his plea deal, he admitted he talked to Trump about the Moscow deal more times than he had previously stated and also briefed Trump family members. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5467801/trump-russia-campaign/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5467801/trump-russia-campaign/"},"headline":"President Trump Defends Pursuit of Russia Business During Campaign","datePublished":"2018-11-30T13:31:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T22:10:09.146Z","description":"'Put up zero money, zero guarantees and didn’t do the project'","url":"https://time.com/5467801/trump-russia-campaign/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9343a3071646188/6989404c457a523cb8d60053/trump-russia-business.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Bloomberg","jobTitle":"Contributor","url":"https://time.com/author/bloomberg/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9343a3071646188/6989404c457a523cb8d60053/trump-russia-business.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump Russia Business","caption":"Trump Russia Business","creditText":"Win McNamee—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5467801/trump-russia-campaign/","name":"President Trump Defends Pursuit of Russia Business During Campaign"}}]}] ```