Donald Trump Is Now ‘Putin’s Apprentice,’ Maxine Waters Claims

He may have been giving businesspeople and celebrities alike a chance to explore the various facets of running a big business as the host of The Apprentice, but as far as California Representative Maxine Waters is concerned, President Donald Trump is the one playing the apprentice role when it comes to his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In an interview on Sunday with MSNBC’s AM Joy, Waters, who has been one of Trump’s strongest critics since he was sworn in as president, said that she wasn’t surprised about how Trump seemed to take Putin’s side when he denied Russia’s involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections when the two world leaders met earlier this month in Helsinki.

“As a matter of fact, I think he is Putin’s apprentice,” Waters told MSNBC host Joy Reid, as quoted by Newsweek.

“He’s been under his tutelage for a long time now, and he intends to get it done and the American people are standing idly by.”

Maxine Waters also criticized the Republican Party of effectively condoning Donald Trump’s recent comments and actions, saying that the GOP “should be ashamed” of their perceived inability to speak up against the president.

“They have no courage. They’re not standing up for America. I dare them to talk about how patriotic they are given what they are allowing this president to do.”

Furthermore, Waters warned that “strong action” is needed to prevent Trump from bringing Putin to the United States and potentially letting the Russian president convince the U.S. to drop a series of sanctions levied against his country, according to a report from The Hill.

Although Waters has spoken out repeatedly against Trump, frequently calling for his impeachment or resignation, Newsweek wrote that the Democrat congresswoman has doubled down on her criticism in recent months, especially in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s recently discontinued “zero tolerance” policy that separated many immigrant families from their children at the U.S.-Mexico border.

I think Trump is Putin's apprentice https://t.co/PN7lXVbkkk via @msnbc

— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) July 22, 2018

At a rally in June, Maxine Waters also encouraged people to “push back” against Donald Trump’s cabinet by confronting them in the event of a chance public encounter. According to Vox, these comments were made shortly after incidents involving White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, where the former was denied service at a Virginia restaurant and the latter was confronted by protesters who chanted “shame” as she dined at a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C.

According to Newsweek, Waters’ “push back” remarks prompted a rebuke from Trump, who referred to her in a Twitter post as an “extraordinarily low IQ person” and accused her of inciting “harm” against his supporters.