In newly launched audio recordings from a 2020 interview, former President Donald Trump admitted he most well-liked world leaders “the harder and meaner they’re.”
“I like Putin. Our relationship must be an excellent one. I campaigned on getting together with Russia, China and everybody else,” Trump informed veteran journalist Bob Woodward in a Jan. 2020 interview, in keeping with CNN, which obtained a duplicate. “Getting together with Russia is an efficient factor, not a nasty factor, all proper? Particularly as a result of they’ve 1,332 nuclear fucking warheads.”
“It’s humorous, the relationships I’ve, the harder and meaner they’re, the higher I get together with them. You understand?” Trump added. “Clarify that to me sometime, okay. However perhaps it’s not a nasty factor. The simple ones are those I perhaps don’t like as a lot or don’t get together with as a lot.”
He additionally spoke about his relationship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“I get alongside very effectively with Erdogan, though you’re not imagined to as a result of everybody says what a horrible man,” Trump mentioned. “However for me it really works out good.”
Trump routinely touted his good relationship with authoritarian leaders all through his presidency, whereas alienating allies corresponding to Canada, France and Germany.
Woodward is releasing the tapes from 20 interviews he performed with Trump from 2016 to 2020 as a brand new audiobook, titled “The Trump Tapes.” CNN launched excerpts from the audiobook after acquiring an advance copy.