Donald Trump Is in 'Awe' of Vladimir Putin Like a Child Meeting the 'Football Captain', Ex-Australian Prime Minister Claims
Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull revealed he was creeped out by Donald Trump's behavior around Russian president Vladimir Putin.
"The Republican Party under Donald Trump, and particularly the right wing of the Republican Party, are very sympathetic to Vladimir Putin," the ex-PM said in a recent interview. "I mean, I’ve been with Trump and Putin: Trump is in awe of Putin."
"When you see Trump with Putin, as I have on a few occasions, he’s [Trump] like the 12-year-old boy that goes to high school and meets the captain of the football team. My hero!" he explained. "It is really creepy. It’s really creepy."
This isn't the first time Turnbull has criticized Trump. Following the 2016 election, the Australian politician wrote a lengthy piece for a news outlet detailing his opinions on the now 77-year-old.
"Trump is a natural isolationist. Whether it was east Asia or the Middle East, Trump’s perspective was thoroughly dystopian," he penned at the time. "Everyone hated each other, had done for centuries and wasn’t going to change. So the less the U.S. had to do with them the better."
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"Every country and every leader tried to work out how to deal with Trump," he said in another portion of the essay. "Elaborate psychological analyses were written in foreign capitals — including our own. The general conclusion was that Trump was a narcissist who’d respond well to flattery."
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Trump has also been criticized by U.S. citizens and politicians for his alleged fawning over Putin. Former house speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested he was "constantly catering" to the Russian president during a February appearance on MSNBC.
"I don’t know what he has on him, but I think it’s probably financial," she noted. "Or something that he expects to get."
President Joe Biden also slammed Trump after the embattled businessman told supporters he'd refuse to help NATO allies and encourage Russia to do "whatever the h--- they want to them" if they didn't "pay their bills."
"Serving as Commander-in-Chief is the ultimate responsibility and one that should weigh heavily on the individuals that hold this office," the 81-year-old POTUS said. "Donald Trump’s admission that he intends to give Putin a greenlight for more war and violence, to continue his brutal assault against a free Ukraine, and to expand his aggression to the people of Poland and the Baltic States are appalling and dangerous."
Turnbull wrote a piece for The Guardian about his dealings with Trump.