Russian president Vladimir Putin would have been happier with Hillary Clinton in the White House, President Trump asserted on Wednesday.
In an interview with CBN’s Pat Robertson, Trump disputed the prevailing belief that the Russian leader wanted him as president instead of Clinton.
“So what I keep hearing about that he would have rather had Trump, I think ‘probably not,'” Trump said in the interview, which airs in full on Thursday.
The Republican said that his support for a strong U.S. military and export-heavy energy policy is opposed by Putin.
“When I want a strong military, you know she wouldn’t have spent the money on military,” Trump asserted.
“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. 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.”
Almost as soon as he entered the campaign for president, Trump has been accused of being too soft on Putin.
U.S. intelligence officials have also determined that Putin orchestrated cyber attacks against the Clinton campaign last year either explicitly to help Trump win the White House or to sow chaos in the U.S. democratic system.