Strongly denying that his 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Moscow to defeat Hillary Clinton, US President Donald Trump has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin would have actually preferred Hillary Clinton in the White House as it would have made the United States weaker.
Trump, however, added that both he and Putin are advocating interest of their respective countries and therefore, there is scope for co-operation between the two at the global stage.
“We are the most powerful country in the world and we are getting more and more powerful because I’m a big military person. As an example, if Hillary had won, our military would be decimated. Our energy would be much more expensive. That’s what Putin doesn’t like about me,” Donald Trump told Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) in his first major interview after his last week’s maiden meeting with Putin in Hamburg, Germany on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit
“And that’s why I say, why would he want me? Because from day one I wanted a strong military, he doesn’t want to see that,” he said, according to the excerpts of the interview released by CBN.
"From day one I want fracking and everything else to get energy prices low and to create tremendous energy. We’re going to be self-supporting, we just about are now. We’re going to be exporting energy, he doesn’t want that.
"He would like Hillary where she wants to have windmills. He would much rather have that because energy prices would go up and Russia as you know relies very much on energy," he continued.
"So, there are many things that I do that are the exact opposite of what he would want. So, what I keep hearing about that he would have rather had Trump, I think probably not, because when I want a strong military, you know she wouldn’t have spent the money on military," he said.
"When I want tremendous energy, were opening up coal, were opening up natural gas, were opening up fracking, all the things that he would hate, but nobody ever mentions that," said the US President.
In the middle of a political storm, because of allegations of Russian connections by his campaign, Trump said the two countries can get along together.
"Well he wants what’s good for Russia, and I want what’s good for the United States. And I think in a case like Syria where we can get together, do a ceasefire, and there are many other cases where getting along can be a very positive thing, but always Putin is going to want Russia and Trump is going to want the United States and that’s the way it is," Trump told CBN.
His meeting with Putin in Germany last week went quite well, he said.
"Sometimes you’re not going to get along on things and sometimes you will. But we had a good meeting, it was a face to face meeting, it was a long meeting. It was two hours and 15 minutes. Everyone was surprised by the amount of time but that was a good thing and not a bad thing," he said.
"Yeah, I think we get along very well and I think that’s a good thing, that’s not a bad thing. People said, oh they shouldn’t get along. Well, who are the people that are saying that? I think we get along very, very well. We are a tremendously powerful nuclear power, and so are they. It doesn’t make sense not to have some kind of a relationship," Trump said.
Syria is one area where there is potential of a large cooperation. "I think we had an excellent meeting. One thing we did is we had a ceasefire in a major part of Syria where there was tremendous bedlam and tremendous killing. And, by the way, this is now four days," Trump said.
"The ceasefire has held for four days. Those (previous) ceasefires haven’t held at all. That’s because President Putin and President Trump made the deal, and it’s held. Now, I don’t know what’s going to happen. Maybe as were speaking they start shooting again. But this has held unlike all of the other ceasefires that didn’t mean anything," he said.
"So, that was a great thing that came out of that meeting. I think a lot of things came out of that meeting but I do believe it’s important to have a dialogue and if you dont have a dialogue, it’s a lot of problems for our country and for their country. I think we need dialogue. We need dialogue with everybody," Trump told CBN.
(With agency inputs)
