Trump Says It Would Be a ‘Smart Thing’ if He Had Talked to Putin

Trump Says It Would Be a ‘Smart Thing’ if He Had Talked to Putin

Donald J. Trump declined to comment on whether he’d talked with the Russian president since leaving office. But he added, “If I have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing.”

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By Michael Gold

Reporting from Chicago

Former President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday repeatedly dodged a question about whether he had spoken to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia after his presidency ended but added that it would have been a “smart thing” if he had.

During a frequently combative interview, John Micklethwait, the editor in chief of Bloomberg, asked Mr. Trump directly about a new book by the journalist Bob Woodward that includes an unnamed aide saying the former president and Mr. Putin had spoken as many as seven times since Mr. Trump left office in 2021. The account — which has not been corroborated by other journalists — has revived questions about the two men’s long-scrutinized relationship, particularly in light of Mr. Trump’s criticism of continued U.S. military aid to Ukraine.

“Well, I don’t comment on that,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Micklethwait during an interview conducted at a meeting of the Economic Club of Chicago. “But I will tell you that, if I did it, it’s a smart thing. If I’m friendly with people, if I have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”

After trying unsuccessfully to interrupt Mr. Trump — who had launched into a winding account of his views on a Russian pipeline, other countries’ military spending and trade deals — Mr. Micklethwait attempted to clarify Mr. Trump’s remarks. “You seemed to imply that you had talked to him without actually confirming,” he said.

Mr. Trump once again did not issue an outright denial. “I didn’t imply,” Mr. Trump said. “I said I don’t comment on those things.”

The relationship between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin has drawn attention since the 2016 presidential campaign, when U.S. intelligence agencies released a statement warning of Russian election interference. They later concluded that Mr. Putin had ordered his government to help Mr. Trump defeat his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Mr. Trump embraced Mr. Putin during his presidency, and has continued to do so since leaving office, even as Russia and the United States have been on opposing sides of the war in Ukraine. Mr. Trump called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “pretty smart” in 2022, and he has been skeptical about continuing military and financial aid to Ukraine. Though Mr. Trump often insists his relationship with Mr. Putin will allow him to end the war in Ukraine swiftly, he has not addressed whether he believes Ukraine will have to give up territory to Russia to do so.

And Mr. Trump also raised concern about his ties to Russia among European allies when he said at a rally this year that he might go so far as to “encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” against any members of NATO that Mr. Trump had decided were not spending enough on their own defense.

Mr. Trump’s refusal to answer questions directly about his relationship with Mr. Putin was consistent with the tone throughout Tuesday’s interview, which took place in a ballroom of the Fairmont hotel.

The former president frequently ignored the thrust of the questions he was asked, instead giving meandering responses that included unrelated points and hard-to-follow anecdotes. He frequently dwelt on how nicely or poorly he felt that various people, institutions and corporations had treated him.

Toward the end of their conversation, Mr. Micklethwait brought up the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by some of Mr. Trump’s supporters. He asked the former president if he would commit to “respecting and encouraging a peaceful transfer of power this year.”

Mr. Trump would not commit to one. “Well, you had a peaceful transfer of power,” he said, referring to January 2021, as some of the hundreds of business and civic leaders seated in the ballroom applauded.

Mr. Micklethwait expressed his disbelief. “You had a peaceful transfer of power compared with Venezuela,” Mr. Micklethwait said. “But it was by far the worst transfer of power for a long time.”

As members of the crowd booed, Mr. Trump expressed his gratitude and pointed the finger at Mr. Micklethwait, accusing him of being biased. Then, rather than answering the question, he tried to shift the subject to his false claims of election fraud.

Mr. Trump minimized the violence of his supporters and alluded to conspiratorial claims that the events were spurred on by law enforcement officials. And he pointed to his eventual departure of the White House on Inauguration Day — weeks after his efforts to cling to power had failed — as evidence of a “very peaceful transfer” as he rejected Mr. Micklethwait’s question.

“So, I think we should be allowed to disagree on that,” he said.