Donald Trump Takes Camaraderie With Putin A Notch Higher: ‘A Leader Far More Than Our President’

Donald Trump has stoked fires once again by claiming that Russian president Vladimir Putin is a far better leader than U.S. president Barack Obama.

Speaking at a forum Wednesday night focused on national security issues, Trump told a group of assembled military veterans that Putin is worthy of his praise because he has been able to keep Russia united, unlike Obama, who, according to Trump, has failed to address the growing divisions within the United States.

“The man has very strong control over a country. Now It’s a very different system and I don’t happen to like the system, but certainly in that system, he’s been a leader. Far more than our president has been a leader.”

Video — Trump says Putin is a stronger leader than Obama, says he'll take his compliments #NBCNewsForum https://t.co/8MonyVA5Ln

— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) September 8, 2016

When dogged about why he would choose to defend and even praise someone who is often seen as one of the chief adversaries of the United States, Trump said he could not stop himself from returning Putin’s compliments, reports The Boston Globe.

“He does have an 82% approval rating… When he calls me brilliant, I’ll take the compliment. OK?” Trump told MSNBC/NBC‘s Matt Lauer during the televised town hall meeting.

“If he’s going to say great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him.”

Trump has been under fire previously for his unusual, but not altogether surprising, camaraderie with the Russian president. Besides the rhetoric, the Republican nominee is known for taking positions, including threatening not to defend the NATO allies of the United States against a potential Russian attack in the future, and endorsing Moscow’s commitment to helping Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in the war against the rebels, which is in line with Kremlin’s long-term strategic goals.

The new joke in town is that Russia leaked the disastrous DNC e-mails, which should never have been written (stupid), because Putin likes me

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2016

Back in July, Trump had even sought Russia’s help in derailing Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. When the real estate mogul was roundly criticized for effectively asking Putin to interfere with the 2016 U.S. election, Trump had backed down, saying that he had made the comment in jest, terming it “sarcastic.”

Later, Trump also said that Russia could become a key U.S. ally in “bombing the hell out of ISIS,” if he is elected president. When pressed on how he would go about eliminating the Islamic fundamentalist group, Trump merely shrugged away from the details, instead recounting his version of how the organization became so powerful.

“We should be there. But if we’re going to get out, take the oil. If we would have taken the oil, we wouldn’t have ISIS,” Trump said, before adding that he would not discuss his plans on national television because the enemy could be listening.

“I have a very substantial chance of winning. If I win, I don’t want to broadcast to the enemy exactly what my plan is.”

Despite the palpable ludicrousness of Donald Trump’s remarks about Putin and ISIS, he is right about the Russian president also having a soft spot for him. Putin has called Trump a “very colorful and talented man” in the past and said that Russia’s relationship with the United States need not remain sour if the real estate mogul manages to win the presidency.

“He is the absolute leader of the presidential race, as we see it today. He says that he wants to move to another level of relations, to a deeper level of relations with Russia. How can we not welcome that? Of course, we welcome it,” Putin had said at the annual press conference in Moscow in December last year.

In fact, Donald Trump’s increasing camaraderie has also led certain security experts and media organizations to question Trump’s credibility and even raise the unlikely possibility of Trump being a Russian agent. In a column Central Intelligence Agency director Mike Morell wrote in the New York Times, he blasted the real estate mogul for his camaraderie with Putin, saying he had basically become the unwitting recruit of the Russian Federation.

“In the intelligence business, we would say that Putin had recruited Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation,” Morell had written.

Donald Trump’s affinity towards Vladimir Putin is well-known, but on Wednesday the Republican nominee certainly took his love for Kremlin up a notch by claiming that Putin is a better leader than Barack Obama.

What do you think of Trump’s recent comments on Putin?

[Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]