The Putin-Trump love fest continues: The Russian president reaffirms his praise for the GOP front-runner

Since December, Trump and Putin have traded compliments — and it's not over, apparently

Published June 17, 2016 5:04PM (EDT)

Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump   (AP/Andrew Harnik/Nati Harnik/Photo montage by Salon)
Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump (AP/Andrew Harnik/Nati Harnik/Photo montage by Salon)

Russian president Vladimir Putin has continued to sing Donald Trump's praises.

When asked about his previous compliments of Trump as  a "bright" man last December, Putin said his praise stands,  the Associated Press reported Friday.

After Putin's first admitted his admiration for  Trump in December, the billionaire returned the favor, calling Putin a "strong leader" on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" and complimenting his poll numbers.

"I’ve always felt fine about Putin. I think that he’s a strong leader,” he said. “I think he’s up in the 80s, which is you see where Obama’s in the 30s and the low 40s and he’s up in the 80s, and I don’t know who does the polls, maybe he does the polls, but I think they’re done by American companies, actually." By the way, Obama's approval rating over his term has been in the high 40s, and has only gone down into the high 30s a handful of times.

 At the time, Trump's foes in the Republican primary called him out, to which Trump retorted that they were just jealous that Putin had praised him and not them.

This week's affirmation comes just a day after one of Putin's close allies expressed his approval for Trump.


By Justine Morris

MORE FROM Justine Morris


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Barack Obama Donald Trump Republican Primary Vladimir Putin