MILITARY/POLITICAL FIGURES/RUSSIA: [Reporter: “Are you confident that Russia did not place bounties on U.S. troops?”] “I don’t — I told you, I certainly read about it, and since then, I’ve talked about it. Colin Powell says it’s not true. Colin Powell is not exactly somebody that I’m a big fan of. Colin Powell says it’s not true. Other people say it’s not true.
If it were true, I’d be very angry about it. But if you look at Russia, Russia became Russia from the Soviet Union because of Afghanistan. They lost a fortune and a lot of people — a lot of people.
So I don’t know why they’d be doing it.”
-Donald Trump, “Remarks by President Trump Before Marine One Departure,” whitehouse.gov, July 29, 2020