Kellyanne Conway: President-Elect Trump Is the REAL Target of Obama's Sanctions Against Russia

Incoming Counselor to the President, Kellyanne Conway charged during a Thursday interview on CNN that President Obama's announced sanctions against Russia in response to alleged cyberattacks are at least partially aimed at Donald Trump.

“I will tell you that even those who are sympathetic to President Obama on most issues are saying that part of the reason he did this today was to ‘box in’ President-elect Trump.

That would be very unfortunate if politics were the motivating factor here. We can’t help but think that’s often true.”

The New York Times agreed in a Thursday article.

Taken together, the sweeping actions announced by the White House, the Treasury, the State Department and intelligence agencies on Thursday amount to the strongest American response yet to a state-sponsored cyberattack.

They also appeared intended to box in President-elect Trump, who will now have to decide whether to lift the sanctions on Russian intelligence agencies when he takes office next month.

As reported by Politico, Conway is just one of multiple Trump allies questioning both Obama's sanctions and the timing of them, including former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton — who suggested that Trump could easily reverse Obama's actions.

“I don’t think [the sanctions] will have much impact at all. The Russians have walked all over the Obama administration for eight years. It’s really been a pathetic performance. So what this last burst of activity has to do is hard to say.

I do think it’s intended to try and box the Trump administration in. I think it will fail. This is simply an executive order. If President Trump decides to reverse it, it’s easy enough to do.”

Also in agreement is longtime Trump confidante Rudy Giuliani, who said on “Fox & Friends” Friday that if the cyberattack charges against Putin and Russia are true, Obama's actions are too little, too late.

“There’s a certain pettiness that I hadn’t seen before. I mean, to do this after 18 months, when you could have prevented it 10 months ago. Petty little actions like this don’t mean very much.

It’s almost a mockery to say this is too little too late. It should have been done 10 months ago, 11 months ago, 12 months ago. If it is really true, the response should be much stronger.”

In any case, Putin appears to have played his hand masterfully. Many observers — including the Russian embassy in Washington — believed that Putin would follow Cold War form and immediately expel an equal number of U.S. diplomats from Russia.

“Nyet,” said Putin.

Mladen Antonov/Getty Images

Putin not only refrained from playing tit-for-tat, he invited the children of U.S. diplomats in Russia to a New Year party — and ridiculed Obama in the meantime.

"While we reserve the right to take reciprocal measures, we’re not going to downgrade ourselves to the level of irresponsible 'kitchen' diplomacy.

In our future steps on the way toward the restoration of Russia-United States relations, we will proceed from the policy pursued by the administration of D. Trump."

Trump himself — who has generally dismissed the Russian cyberattack charges — said in a statement following Obama's announcement of sanctions that it's time for the country “to move on to bigger, better things.”