Trump Admits Keeping In Touch With Putin Would Be Good For Him: ‘If I Did, It’s a Smart Thing’
Former President Donald Trump appeared to confirm Bob Woodward’s report that he had stayed in touch with Russian President Vladimir Putin after he left office.
Trump participated in an economic forum hosted by Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Mickelthwaite Tuesday afternoon in Chicago. As Trump spoke about Russia and foreign policy and tariffs, he mentioned Putin, to which Mickelthwaite followed up about reporting from last week.
An advance copy of Woodward’s new book War wound up in the hands of some intrepid CNN reporters. One of the revelations was Trump’s seemingly special treatment of Putin, including during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Woodward wrote that a former Trump aide recounted being told to leave a room so Trump “could have what he said was a private phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.” Woodward adds: “According to Trump’s aide, there have been multiple phone calls between Trump and Putin, maybe as many as seven in the period since Trump left the White House in 2021.”
“You just mentioned you just mentioned Putin, though, and there’s been this controversy the past week,” Mickelthwaite said. “Can you say yes or no whether you have talked to Vladimir Putin since you stopped being president?”
“Well, I don’t comment on that,” Trump replied. “But I will tell you that if I did, it’s a smart thing. If I’m friendly with people — if I can have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing in terms of a country.”
“He’s got 2,000 nuclear weapons and so do we,” he continued, ostensibly defending dialogue with the Putin. “China has a lot less, but they’ll catch us within five years. That sounds good. I have a relationship. I don’t talk about it. I don’t talk about. No, I don’t talk about that. I talk about I don’t ever say you talk, but I can tell you what these people. Russia has never had a president that they respect so much. But more importantly or less importantly, I guess I went into Russia and people said, he likes Putin and Putin likes him.”
The Trump campaign has not addressed reporting that the former president spoke to Putin via several phone calls. The Kremlin confirmed Woodward’s reporting that Trump shared Covid-19 tests with Putin in the early days of the pandemic but denied any phone calls took place between Trump and Putin.
Watch above via Bloomberg via CNN.
