Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “actively hoping” that former President Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election.

Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, has long praised and even quoted the Russian leader on the campaign trail. At a rally in Durham, New Hampshire, earlier this month, the former president quoted Putin who criticized the numerous criminal charges that Trump is currently facing, all of which the former president has pleaded not guilty to.

“Even Vladimir Putin…says that Biden’s, and this is a quote, politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy,” Trump quoted Putin as saying, who made the comment during an economic forum in eastern Russia in September. Putin did not name Biden in the original quote.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Trump and Putin has been criticized since the former president’s 2016 run when questions of Russia’s alleged election interference and possible coordination with the Trump campaign arose.

  • DessertStorms
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    11 months ago

    Lmfao, I don’t doubt Putin would love Trump back, and that the dictatorial love for each other is mutual (until the inevitable point where they have to turn on one another), but I wouldn’t believe a single word out of Trumps mouth, especially if they come after “and I quote…”. Why anyone still would, never mind base a news report on it, is beyond me…

      • DessertStorms
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        11 months ago

        He would, for the few seconds between Putin turning on him, and trump hitting the pavement post-defenestration.

        It might not be long, but he’s exactly the type to pull a “nice guy” and flip 180 the second he realises things aren’t going his way (which might be ages after everyone else around him realises, but the point still stands) - I’d wage good money that he’d be yelling, as he falls to his death, something along the lines of “I never really supported you anyway, you woke leftist!!1”, convincing himself (and no one else, of course) that he got the last word…

        • @Pretzilla@lemmy.world
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          311 months ago

          More like yelling up, ‘thank you Vladdie for not releasing the pedophilia tapes!’

          Splat (even sounds like a Russian onomatopoeia)

        • Magnor
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          111 months ago

          That is putting way too much stock in Trump’s basic human decency.