Donald Trump Sidesteps Question on Phone Calls With Vladimir Putin, Claims It'd Be a 'Smart Thing' to Continue to Communicate With Him

Donald Trump addressed the rumors that he allegedly maintained contact with Vladimir Putin after his presidency while speaking at an economic forum on Tuesday, October 15.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that journalist Bob Woodward claimed in his new book there had been "multiple phone calls between Trump and Putin, maybe as many as seven in the period since Trump left the White House in 2021."

The topic came up again when Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Mickelthwait, who was hosting the event, asked him if he could say "yes or no" on whether he'd contacted the Russian president since he stopped being POTUS.

"Well, I don’t comment on that," Trump answered. "But I will tell you that if I did, it’s a smart thing. If I’m friendly with people — if I can have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing in terms of a country."

"He’s got 2,000 nuclear weapons and so do we," Trump, 78, continued. "China has a lot less, but they’ll catch us within five years. That sounds good. I have a relationship. I don’t talk about it. I don’t talk about. No, I don’t talk about that. I talk about— I don’t ever say you talk, but I can tell you what these people— Russia has never had a president that they respect so much. But more importantly or less importantly, I guess I went into Russia and people said, he likes Putin and Putin likes him."

As OK! previously reported, Woodward also alleged Trump sent Putin "Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use" during the pandemic — claims the Kremlin later confirmed were true.

During a recent interview with Howard Stern, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke out on the rumors and accused Trump of secretly harboring a "desire to be a dictator" himself.

"He admires strongmen and he gets played by them because he thinks that they’re his friends and they are manipulating him full time and manipulating him by flattery and with favor," she said. "This guy who is president of the United States is sending them to Russia?"

"Look, I grew up in the neighborhood, some would say you’re getting punked if you stand in favor of somebody who is an adversary over your friends on principles that we all agree on," she added at the time.