Donald Trump has spoken out, yet again, about Vladimir Putin’s endorsement of Kamala Harris.
The Russian president seemed pretty sarcastic on Thursday when encouraged his supporters to back her, bizarrely praising how the Democratic nominee and current vice president “laughs so expressively and infectiously”.
It’s widely expected that a second Trump administration would be much softer on Putin and his brutal invasion of Ukraine than another term of the Democrats, so it’s unlikely the Russian authoritarian meant what he said.
But the ex-US president, who has often spoken very highly of Putin’s “genius”, did not seem to see it that way.
On Friday, he seemed unsure about how to react, telling his fans in New York: “I don’t know exactly what to say about that. I don’t know if I’m insulted or he did me a favour?”
But, by Saturday, he was telling a rally in Wisconsin that he was “very offended” by Putin’s endorsement of Harris.
He said: “I knew Putin. I knew him well. And you know, he endorsed, I don’t know if you saw the other day, he endorsed Kamala. He endorsed Kamala. I was very offended by that.
“I wonder why he endorsed Kamala. Now, he’s a chess player.
“Should I be upset about that? Was it done with a smile? I think it was done maybe with a smile. Who the hell knows.
“No one is going to figure it out. They’re about 19 steps ahead of us, this whole Russia thing. Nobody was tougher on Russia in history than Trump.
“And the person who knows that better than anyone was Vladimir Putin.”
But, the Republican nominee still found time to defend Russia as a whole.
He dismissed new concerns from the US’s Justice Department that Russia is trying to interfere with the upcoming election, just as it did in 2016.
Trump told the crowd, “the whole world laughed at it this time” when the new fears were revealed earlier this week.
“Oh no, it’s Russia, Russia, Russia, all over again,” he said, according to The Hill. “But they don’t look at China and they don’t look at Iran. I don’t know what it is with poor Russia.”
“Russia would never have happened if I was president, attacking Ukraine, it would never have happened,” he claimed, and promised: “I will have that war finished, settled, before I get to the White House, as president-elect I will get that done.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed he can resolve the Ukraine war but has not explained how he intends to do so, sparking worries that he will allow Russia to formally seize the Ukrainian territory it is already occupying.