Former US president Donald Trump on Tuesday refused to say whether he has spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving office, as reported in Watergate journalist Bob Woodward’s latest book.
But if the two did speak, Mr Trump said, it would be “a smart thing” for the United States.
Mr Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, was pressed on his communication with the Russian president during a wide-ranging — and sometimes contentious — interview with Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait at the Economic Club of Chicago.
Mr Woodward reports in his book War that Mr Trump has had as many as seven private phone calls with Mr Putin since leaving the White House and secretly sent the Russian president Covid-19 test machines during the height of the pandemic.
A Trump campaign spokesperson previously denied the report. During Tuesday’s interview, Mr Micklethwait posed the question to Mr Trump directly: “Can you say yes or no whether you have talked to Vladimir Putin since you stopped being president?
“I don’t comment on that,” Mr Trump responded. “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 and not a bad thing in terms of a country.”
Mr Trump said that Mr Putin, who invaded neighbouring Ukraine and who has been accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court, is well respected in Russia and touted his relationship with him, as well as the authoritarian leaders of North Korea and China.
“Look, I had a very good relationship with President Xi and a very good relationship with Putin, and a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un,” he said. Of Mr Putin, he later added: “Russia has never had a president that they respect so much.”
Mr Woodward reported that Mr Trump asked an aide to leave his office at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, so that the former president could have a private call with Mr in early 2024.
The aide, whom Mr Woodward does not name, said there have been multiple calls between Mr Trump and Mr Putin since Mr Trump left office, perhaps as many as seven, according to the book, though it does not detail what they discussed.
Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung called the reporting false. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the reporting about the calls was “not true”.
Mr Trump’s relationship with Mr Putin has been scrutinised since his 2016 campaign for president, when he memorably called on Russia to find and make public missing emails deleted by Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent.
Mr Trump publicly sided with Mr Putin over US intelligence officials on whether Russia had interfered in the 2016 election to help him, and Mr Trump has criticised US aid to Ukraine as it tries to fend off Russia’s attack.
Later in Tuesday’s interview, Mr Trump refused to say whether he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the November election. He also claimed there was a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election, despite his supporters’ violent attack on the Capitol on January 6 2021.
“Come on. You had a peaceful transfer of power compared to Venezuela,” Mr Micklethwait responded.
