Trump says he thinks he could have a good relationship with Putin

By Steve Holland

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin talk during the family photo session at the APEC Summit in Danang, Vietnam November 11, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump, standing alongside the leaders of three Baltic countries most concerned about the potential for aggression from Moscow, on Tuesday said he thought he could have a good relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

 

Trump, at a news conference after meeting the presidents of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, told reporters "it's a real possibility that I could have a good relationship" with Putin, but acknowledged it was not a certainty.

 

"Getting along with Russia is a good thing," Trump said. "I think I could have a very good relationship with Russia and with President Putin, and if I did, that would be a great thing. And there's also a great possibility that that won't happen. Who knows?"

 

Trump reiterated his belief that "nobody has been tougher on Russia than I have," noting he has pushed for increased defence spending to bolster the U.S. military and has aggressively pushed energy production, enabling the United States to become an exporter in competition with Russia.

 

"We're essentially now energy-independent. We're an exporter of energy. That is not a positive for Russia," Trump told reporters.

 

"We are going to have a military stronger than we've ever had before by far," he added. "That's not exactly a great thing for Russia."

 

Trump also said he had prodded NATO members to meet their defence spending commitments, generating "many billions of dollars" in additional military spending by NATO allies.

 

He praised the three Baltic presidents for their countries' commitment to meeting the NATO goal of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defence this year. Estonia reached that goal in 2017, but Latvia and Lithuania were just shy of the mark at 1.75 percent and 1.73 percent, respectively, according to NATO figures issued last month.

 

The Baltics leaders expressed confidence in Trump's security commitments.

 

The United States plans to provide $100 million for large-caliber ammunition for the Baltics and $70 million for training and equipment, the White House said. It also is working to build the region's defence and energy infrastructure.

 

Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid said the presidents had discussed the region's security needs and what was required "to make sure that our deterrence is believable to everybody who might want to question it."

 

"We are an ally situation together. And we find the solutions together, which will work for us all together, because we are in it all together," Kaljulaid added.

 

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by David Alexander; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-04-04

As long as Trump doesn't run out of KY

Such a relationship would only be a win for Putin,it would take years for the orange to realize he had been peeled.

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Trump says he thinks he could have a good relationship with Putin

Why not?

After all Putin got him elected.....

Putin is a smart guy and may already know that a friend like Trump is as reliable as a speeding truck with brakes made of tofu.  Trump is getting more embedded in Dementialand with each passing week.

His most recent blather, he said the US covers 4% of NATO's funding.  In the next sentence, he said 80%.  He's as solid as a sheet of wet toilet paper in Trump's golden toilet, waiting for the royal flush.

Traitor Trump shows his real face.

33 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

Putin is a smart guy and may already know that a friend like Trump is as reliable as a speeding truck with brakes made of tofu.  Trump is getting more embedded in Dementialand with each passing week.

His most recent blather, he said the US covers 4% of NATO's funding.  In the next sentence, he said 80%.  He's as solid as a sheet of wet toilet paper in Trump's golden toilet, waiting for the royal flush.

I bet he wishes he had dementia, it would be an improvement. 

Let's pay atttention on the action not words. Only after Trump became a president a real pressure began to be exerted on Russia.

8 minutes ago, yurpt said:

Let's pay atttention on the action not words. Only after Trump became a president a real pressure began to be exerted on Russia.

 First post! hope you not a sign of things to come. 

 

4 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

Putin is a smart guy and may already know that a friend like Trump is as reliable as a speeding truck with brakes made of tofu.  Trump is getting more embedded in Dementialand with each passing week.

His most recent blather, he said the US covers 4% of NATO's funding.  In the next sentence, he said 80%.  He's as solid as a sheet of wet toilet paper in Trump's golden toilet, waiting for the royal flush.

It would be nice if all previous presidents after Reigan had such a dementia. Maybe then Trump would not have to pull America out of the ass.

Wonder what he has in Trump

12 minutes ago, yurpt said:

It would be nice if all previous presidents after Reigan had such a dementia. Maybe then Trump would not have to pull America out of the ass.

"Interesting" syntax given what we know now about Russian propaganda. 

1 minute ago, TheFishman1 said:

Wonder what he has in Trump

or maybe?   -   'on' him  

"trump" much prefers dictators. That's what he wants to be someday. So far, he mostly play acts being a dictator on twitter. On the other hand, the buffoon president seems to make a specialty of insulting most of the USA's traditional best friends. Yes, I do think Putin has Kompramat on him. 

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

"Interesting" syntax given what we know now about Russian propaganda. 

English is not my first language. Just do not be too suspisious. Focus on the meaning of the utterance, not on the grammar.

Just now, yurpt said:

English is not my first language. Just do not be too suspisious. Focus on the meaning of the utterance, not on the grammar.

That's worse. 

Looks like Russia thinks differently. Now Russia is talking about event, which almost caused full out nuclear war between USA and Russia. 

Perhaps Russia should stop these kind of talks?

 

"#BREAKING Russia intel chief warns against 'new' Cuban Missile Crisis between Russia and West"

 

 

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

That's worse. 

just accept that I speak English much better than you speak in Russian.

8 minutes ago, yurpt said:

just accept that I speak English much better than you speak in Russian.

As I thought.

The truth is "trump" has not uttered one negative word about Putin that comes out of his mouth. What's up with that? Talk about extremely suspicious. He viciously and unfair and obscenely attacks all kinds of people (even private citizens) and nations that he thinks are personal enemies, foreign and domestic, ALL THE TIME.

It's clear Putin has the goods on "trump." Of course it would serve Russian propaganda to assert that "trump" is super tough on Russia. It's all part of the game. Let's hear that out of "trump's" mouth. Of course, we never will. 

 

The Russian propagandists continue to actively do their work in the west. The USA midterms are coming up and "trump" has done NOTHING to stop them even though all credible U.S. intelligence sources report it's happening more than ever. 

 

I'm sorry. Something stinks here big time. We can excuse Putin because we know he wants to the USA to fail and that's what foreign enemies do. We can't excuse a U.S. president for playing along! 

 

Nor can we, in my view, excuse the "trump" apologists that keep calling the obvious issue of "trump" and Russia as a witch hunt. They are complicit. 

 

"trump" most likely isn't a formally signed operative of Putin but the way he behaves, he may as well be. 

Edited April 4, 20188 yr by Jingthing

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

As I thought.

The truth is "trump" has not uttered one negative word about Putin that comes out of him mouth. What's up with that? He viciously and unfair all kinds of people and nations that he thinks are personal enemies, foreign and domestic, ALL THE TIME.

It's clear Putin has the goods on "trump."

No, It's not clear. It's just your guess-work. It needs to be proved. 

Trump do not need to be vicious with crasy guy with nuсler bomb. Trump is not that stupid.

8 minutes ago, yurpt said:

No, It's not clear. It's just your guess-work. It needs to be proved. 

Trump do not need to be vicious with crasy guy with nuсler bomb. Trump is not that stupid.

More propaganda B.S.

"trump" is quite talented at being a demagogue and con man but that's where his talents end. 

You cited Reagan. Reagan talked very tough words about Russia. "trump" just doesn't. People that aren't blind "trump" supporters or just objective can see that is very, very suspicious considering his style which is the most foul mouthed undiplomatic president in history. 

But NEVER towards Putin.

Sometimes it gets darkly hilarious. 

Like when "trump" reported that he directly asked Putin (while in Asia) whether he meddled in the U.S. election. Putin said no. (Duh.) "trump" said he didn't want to push it further because he felt he was hurting Putin's feelings. That's from potty mouth president that insults friendly leaders very often. Something is very rotten. People should stop falling for Fox News and Russian propaganda (often the same thing). 

Edited April 4, 20188 yr by Jingthing

Aw...they are both so cute..

 

I used to have pet rocks just like them until I dixcovered the internet.

 

There they all were..just twittering and facebooking away..

 

Splendid rocks-who would ever believe that they were sentient?

How Putinism and "trumpism" are very similar. No wonder that "trump" is a not so secret admirer of the Russian dictator. He loves authoritarianism much more than democracy. In that sense, I see the rise of "trump" as a deeply un-American development. 

Quote

 

Putinism, like Trumpism, is based on a cynicism. It’s based on the idea that one should have no illusions, be wise to the ways of the world. People are, as Machiavelli put it, ungrateful and deceitful, timid of danger and avid for profit.

...

In this world, everything is public relations, and the more shameless the charade the better because people will believe whatever is in their interest to believe.

 

http://www.paywallnews.com/life/Opinion-|-Vladimir-Putin--the-Most-Influential-Man-in-the-World.S14kaUgsz.html

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

More propaganda B.S.

"trump" is quite talented at being a demagogue and con man but that's where his talents end. 

You cited Reagan. Reagan talked very tough words about Russia. "trump" just doesn't. People that aren't blind "trump" supporters or just objective can see that is very, very suspicious considering his style which is the most foul mouthed undiplomatic presidents in history. 

What you mean propaganda? May be Russia do not have nucler power that can destroy half of America on the first try?

Please be grown up. Juge for the actions not for the words. The words do not matter if they are not backed by actions.

Obama liked to talk too much and what? Russia had annexed territories since 2008. And what happend after his tough words?... Russia just kept going to be aggressive. 

 

After Trump came into power the sunctions against Russia became real. Economy of the first enemy of America getting weaker. No technology for Russia, no money for Russia. He is just quietly strangling Russia.

You can't answer it either. No surprise. Why does "trump" act like Putin has Kompramat on him?

45 minutes ago, yurpt said:

No, It's not clear. It's just your guess-work. It needs to be proved. 

Trump do not need to be vicious with crasy guy with nuсler bomb. Trump is not that stupid.

Uh, have you followed the news regarding his spat with a certain Kim Jong-un? Are you even awake???

I think Trump is just paving the way for his post-presidential business ventures.

In this speech ( MSNBC videp),  Trump sounds like someone interviewed when applying for a new job... not like the leader of the free world

 

https://www.politicususa.com/2018/04/03/trump-falls-apart-when-asked-about-russia-at-joint-press-conference.html

Edited April 4, 20188 yr by Opl

These guys, Trump and Putin, are both "Nationalists".  All the knee-jerk haters seem to be in favor of a one world government or to be brainwashed by the globalist owned mockingbird corporate media, IMHO.

I thought he already had a good relationship with Putin? I mean, every time Putin tells Trump to bend over he does what he is told ....