The rough transcript released Friday of an April phone call President Trump had with the incoming president of Ukraine bears little resemblance to the paragraph-long official summary that the White House released the day of the conversation.
he had with the incoming president of Ukraine, holding it out as evidence that he did nothing wrong. Instead, the memorandum shows how White House descriptions of Trump’s communications with foreign leaders at times better reflect wishful thinking than the reality of the interactions.on Capitol Hill, Trump released the unclassified record of his April 21 call with President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
To that end, the official readout of the Zelenskiy call reported that Trump noted the “peaceful and democratic manner of the electoral process” that had led to Zelenskiy’s victory in Ukraine’s presidential election. Likewise, the readout said the president expressed his commitment to help Ukraine “to implement reforms that strengthen democracy, increase prosperity, and root out corruption.” The word “corruption” is not mentioned in the rough transcript of the call.
Several current and former administration officials told The Associated Press that the readouts of foreign leader calls are often pre-written, reflecting official U.S. policy and what National Security Council officials hope the leaders will discuss and the talking points they provide to guide the president’s conversations. Those readouts are supposed to be revised after the calls to reflect what actually transpired.
Ned Price, a former NSC spokesman under Obama and now director of policy at National Security Action, said it wasn’t uncommon for readouts to provide a “more artful and formal recap” of a foreign leader call.
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