Donald Trump has made plain his fondness for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who has in his own way returned the favor. But if Trump comes back to the White House, their divergent interests could still make the relationship complicated. Ahead of Tuesday's razor-tight election, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has hammered in on Trump's long history with Putin, telling a rally Tuesday that the Russian leader and other strongmen were "rooting" for Trump, knowing he is "easy to manipulate with flattery and favor.
" Trump has repeatedly praised Putin, whose hyper-masculine style and professed attachment to traditional values has increasingly found favor among some US Christian conservatives. At a rally in March, Trump praised Putin as "smart" -- yet also faulted his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, saying that sending troops to the border had been "a hell of a way to negotiate" but that going in was a "big mistake" that did not turn out well. The Republican tycoon nonetheless has mused that Russia will eventually win and scoffed at the billions of dollars in US assistance sent to Ukraine under President Joe Biden and Harris.
Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, has gone so far as to say he does not care what happens in Ukraine, believing that the United States should focus on confronting China instead.
Trump has boasted that he can quickly end the Ukraine war, with his aides suggesting forcing Ukraine into territorial concessions by conditioning US assistance. H.