Donald Trump has appalled even many fellow Republicans with his recent embrace of Vladimir Putin , defending the Russian president’s human rights record and lauding him as a “strong leader.”
The Republican presidential frontrunner doubled down on his praise of Putin in a radio interview with Iowa’s Simon Conway on Friday, saying that he was confident that he could work well with Putin because he’s “always had a good feeling about him.”
“So, I’m a deal-maker,” Trump said. “So what happens with a deal-maker is you have an instinct, because deals are not deals, they’re people. It’s all about people. And I’ve always had a good instinct about Putin, for me, I just feel that that’s a guy — and I can analyze people. And you’re not always right and it could be that I won’t like him, but I always had a good feeling about him from the standpoint.”
Trump contrasted his potential friendship with Putin with Obama, whom he lamented has “never gotten along” with the Russian leader.
“I really believe that Russia and the United States can be a positive force together as opposed to really working negatively with each other all the time,” he said.
Trump also derided the “people that aren’t very smart that are in politics” who have been unhappy with Russia’s actions in Syria, which have often been at odds with U.S. military strategy.
