A guy calls me a genius and I’m going to renounce?” Trump said about Putin

Inside Trump’s financial ties to Russia and his unusual flattery of Vladimir Putin

The overwhelming consensus among American political and national security leaders has held that Putin is a pariah who disregards human rights and has violated international norms in seeking to regain influence and territory in the former Soviet bloc. In 2012, one year before Trump brought his beauty pageant to Moscow, then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney called Russia the United States’ top geopolitical threat — an assessment that has only gained currency since then.



The dynamic illustrates the extent to which Trump’s worldview has been formed through the lens of commerce rather than the think tanks, government deliberations and international diplomatic conferences that typically shape the foreign policy positions of presidential candidates.

It also reflects Trump’s willingness to see other world leaders through his own personal connections. In a Republican Party in which an ability to stand up to Putin has been seen as a test of toughness, Trump’s relationship with the Russian leader is instead one of mutual flattery. Putin said in December that Trump was a “colorful and talented” person, a compliment that Trump said at the time was an “honor.”

The back-and-forth has continued. In a rally Thursday night, Trump cited those comments as the reason he will not reject the Russian leader. “A guy calls me a genius and I’m going to renounce?” Trump said. “I’m not going to renounce him.” On Friday in St. Petersburg, Putin again called Trump a “colorful person” and said he welcomed Trump’s proposal for a “full-scale resumption” of U.S.-Russian ties.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-trumps-financial-ties-to-russia-and-his-unusual-flattery-of-vladimir-putin/2016/06/17/dbdcaac8-31a6-11e6-8ff7-7b6c1998b7a0_story.html