Trump dodges questions about his friendship with Putin, says 'I don't comment on that'—what is he hiding?

Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee for the upcoming US Elections, is under the magnifying glass for his friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Tuesday (Oct 15), when asked about his alleged "personal relationship" with Putin, Trump in an evasive manner commented, "I don't talk about that".

The Trump-Putin friendship

Earlier this month, a new book by the journalist Bob Woodward revealed that Trump has maintained a "personal relationship" with Putin, and the two leaders have spoken several times since the Republican left office in 2021.

On Tuesday, during an appearance at the Economic Club of Chicago, the interviewer John Micklethwait, the editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, asked Trump about the rumoured friendship.

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"Can you say yes or no, whether you have talked to Vladimir Putin since you stopped being president?" he asked.

Trump did not deny these interactions but responded, "Well, I don't comment on that, 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."

The interviewer further prodded the ex-president, "That sounds very much like you did talk to him."

To this, Trump said, "No, I don't talk about that."

Why is the friendship controversial?

Trump's potentially contacting Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving office contradicts his previous outrage over former Secretary of State John Kerry's conversations with foreign officials. 

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The Republican, while he was the US president, had labelled Kerry's interactions about preserving the nuclear agreement with Iranian officials, as a betrayal of the United States. He said that it was a violation of the Logan Act, a 1799 statute barring private citizens from interfering in diplomatic relations with foreign governments, and even wanted Kerry to be "prosecuted" for that.

Bob Woodward's 'War' also alleged that Trump, when he was president for the first time, sent COVID test kits to his friend Putin. This happened even as the US reeled from a shortage during the coronavirus pandemic.

(With inputs from agencies)