Trump speculated early in the campaign that he would “get along very well with” Russian President and bare-chested equestrian Vladimir Putin. And on Friday, a day after the 60 Minutes “stablemates” traded effusive compliments, we got our first idea of what a diplomatic bromance between the two strongmen might look like.
“He’s running his country,” said Trump, asked by MSNBC talkshow anchor Joe Scarborough to comment on the Russian leader’s widespread targeting journalists and general fondness for launching covert invasions of foreign nations. “At least he’s a leader. Unlike what we have in this country.”
Trump tried to pretend that he had misunderstood the question, but when a bemused Scarborough pressed him on a follow up, he said, “I think our country does plenty of killing, also, Joe...There’s a lot of stupidity going on in the world right now, Joe. A lot of killing going on. A lot of stupidity. And that’s the way it is.”
There you have it folks: the Trump Doctrine. You do some murdering, I do some murdering, then we shrug and tell each other we’re special and ride off into the sunset.