Trump Refuses to Reveal If He’s Spoken to Putin Since Election in Time Mag Interview
AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File
President-elect Donald Trump refused to answer a question on whether or not he’s spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin since he was elected over a month ago.
This interesting detail emerged from Trump’s interview with Time magazine for the Person of the Year issue, of which he was named and featured on the cover.
Trump sat for a wide-ranging interview, and his comments on foreign policy, particularly as it regards Ukraine and Trump’s relationship with Putin, will be sure to raise eyebrows:
TIME: I’m going to shift to foreign policy. Have you spoken to Vladimir Putin since your election?
TRUMP: I can’t tell you. I can’t tell you. It’s just inappropriate.
TIME: If Ukraine doesn’t agree to a peace deal that you have said you will broker, will you cut military, humanitarian, and intelligence assistance to them?
TRUMP: The reason that I don’t like to tell you this is that, as a negotiator, when I sit down and talk to some very brilliant young people: young, young, young, young. Compared to me, you’re very young. But when I talk to people—when I start I think I have a very good plan to help, but when I start exposing that plan, it becomes almost a worthless plan.
TIME: Will you commit to protecting Ukrainian sovereignty, though, from Russia?
TRUMP: I would like to see Ukraine—okay, ready? You have to go back a little bit further. It would have never happened if I were president. Would have never happened.
When pressed on whether or not he will “abandon” Ukraine, Trump was short on details:
Well, I just said it. You can’t reach an agreement if you abandon, in my opinion. And I disagree with the whole thing, because it should have never happened. Putin would have never invaded Ukraine if I were president for numerous reasons. Number one, they drove up the oil price. When they drove up the oil price, they made it a profit-making situation for him, the oil price should have been driven down. If it was driven down, you wouldn’t have had it wouldn’t have started just for pure economic reasons. But when it hits $80, $85, and $90 a barrel. I mean, he made, he made a lot of money. I’m not saying it’s a good thing, because he’s also suffered, but they are moving forward. You know, this is a war that’s been—this is a tragedy. This is death that’s far greater than anyone knows. When the real numbers come out, you’re going to see numbers that you’re not going to believe.
Three weeks before the election, Bob Woodward revealed that Trump had spoken to Putin as many as half a dozen times while he was running for his second term.
Woodward wrote in his book War 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 added: “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.”
Trump was asked in an interview in October whether he had spoken to Putin since leaving office and also declined to answer.
“Well, I don’t comment on that,” Trump said. “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 his 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.”
