The Russian president offers strong praise of his fellow billionaire, calling him “tremendous.”
Vladimir Putin says he would welcome a President Donald Trump. The president of Russia just after his annual year-end marathon press conference before about 1400 journalists told the packed room that he is “ready to work with any president, for whom the American people will vote,” but immediately after the 3-hour event offered what many are calling an endorsement.
Donald Trump is “tremendous,” and “a really brilliant and talented person, without any doubt,” Putin said, Buzzfeed, quoting the Russian news agency Interfax, reports. “It’s not our job to judge his qualities, that’s a job for American voters, but he’s the absolute leader in the presidential race.”
The Russian president, who just hosted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry this week, said that Trump “says he wants to move on to a new, more substantial relationship, a deeper relationship with Russia, how can we not welcome that? Of course we welcome that.”
Putin’s endorsement could be a game changer for Trump. Right wing Christian evangelicals and the far religious right, with whom Trump has struggled to gain traction, have praised Putin for the past few years as he has clamped down and attacked the gay community in Russia. Putin’s anti-gay laws combined with his embrace of the Russian Orthodox Church have fueled a climate of anti-LGBT hate, enabling violence and blackmail against the minority group already suffering in Russia.
Ted Cruz most recently has been the recipient of support from the conservative Christian evangelical right, and support from Putin for Trump could sway christian extremists.
Trump, for his part, has offered a welcoming hand to Putin also.Â
“I would talk to him, I would get along with him,†the GOP frontrunner said at a campaign event.
Trump also claimed to have gotten to know Putin well after appearing on the same “60 Minutes” episode with him, even though interviews with both men were conducted separately and on different days on different continents.
Former GOP president George W. Bush, upon meeting Putin in 2001, said, “I looked the man in the eye,” and concluded, “I was able to get a sense of his soul.”
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Image by Alec Luhn via TwitterÂ