Putin prayed for Trump Witkoff noted that Putin told him he prayed for Trump after he narrowly survived an assassination attempt in July. The Russian leader said he “went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed for the president – not because he could become the president of the United States, but because he had a friendship with him and he was praying for his friend,” the envoy recounted. He added that his recent visit to Moscow “got personal.” “President Putin had commissioned a beautiful portrait of President Trump from the leading Russian artist and actually gave it to me and asked me to take it home to President Trump, which I brought home and delivered to him.”