Dictators, Strongmen, Murderers, Assassins: Trump and His "Friends"

We do not have to speculate about or editorialize over Trump’s attitude toward some of the most dangerous dictators and murderous strongmen holding absolute power in their countries. In his own words, Donald J. Trump fantasizes about having the kind of power Vladimir Putin or Xi have. Trump admires, even “loves” murderous dictators. Here are the unadulterated words of the man in our Oval Office on some of the most murderous dictators in the world today:

Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China,

In Trump’s own words:

“He’s a good man…He’s now president for life. President for life. No, he’s great, “And look, he [Xi] was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday.”

Vladimir Putin, President of Russia,

In Trump’s own words:

“He [Putin] said he didn’t meddle. You can only ask so many times. I just asked him again. He said he absolutely did not meddle in our elections…And I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it…Putin has done “a really great job outsmarting our country.”

“Will he become my new best friend? …It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond.”

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

“And what he did is an incredible offer. He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. I think that’s an incredible offer. O.K.? Thank you.”

“I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

“I also want to congratulate Russia and President Putin for having done such an excellent job in hosting the World Cup. It was really one of the best ever. And your team also did very well. It was a great job.”

“He said I’m a genius. I said thank you very much.”

“I did 60 Minutes last week — that was an honor. My stablemate was Vladimir Putin and we did very well.”

“Putin is a nicer person than I am.”

“I’ve always had a good instinct about Putin. I just feel that that’s a guy—and I can analyze people and you’re not always right, and it could be that I won’t like him. But I’ve always had a good feeling about him from the standpoint.”

“But, in all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t seen that. I don’t know that he has. Have you been able to prove that? Do you know the names of the reporters that he’s killed? Because I’ve been — you know, you’ve been hearing this, but I haven’t seen the name.”

[Trump defends Putin when Bill O’Reilly calls Putin a killer]: “There are a lot of killers… “Do you think our country is so innocent? Do you think our country is so innocent?

“If he says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him. I’ve already said, he is really very much of a leader.”

[In Helsinki with Putin at his side] “As you know, the concept of that came up perhaps a little before, but it came out as a reason why the Democrats lost an election, which frankly, they should have been able to win, because the electoral college is much more advantageous for Democrats, as you know, than it is to Republicans. We won the electoral college by a lot. 306 to 223, I believe. That was a well-fought battle. We did a great job.

Frankly, I’m going to let the president speak to the second part of your question. But, just to say it one time again and I say it all the time, there was no collusion. I didn’t know the president. There was nobody to colluded with. There was no collusion with the campaign. Every time you hear all of these 12 and 14 — it’s stuff that has nothing to do — and frankly, they admit, these are not people involved in the campaign. But to the average reader out there, they are saying, well maybe that does. It doesn’t. Even the people involved, some perhaps told mis-stories. In one case the FBI said there was no lie. There was no lie. Somebody else said there was. We ran a brilliant campaign. And that’s why I’m president.”

“You know, people are saying they think it was him [ordered the poisoning of Russian dissidents in England], it might have been him, it could have been him. But Maria, in all fairness to Putin—I don’t know. You know, and I’m not saying this because he says, ‘Trump is brilliant and leading everybody’ —the fact is that, you know, he hasn’t been convicted of anything.”

“I believe Putin will continue to re-build the Russian Empire.”

[On Putin’s invasion of Crimea] “Well, he’s done an amazing job of taking the mantle.”

Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte

In Trump’s own words:

“I just wanted to congratulate you [Duterte] because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem.”

“Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that.”

“We’ve had a great relationship.”

Kim Jong Un, North Korean Leader,

In Trump’s own words:

“[He’s] very talented.

“We fell in love” [after exchanging letters].

“He’s a very talented man.” [yet again]

“I like him. I get along with him great,”

“We have a fantastic chemistry.” Kim is a “great leader.”

“Great personality and very smart. Good combination. He’s a worthy negotiator. He’s negotiating on behalf of his people, a very worthy, very smart negotiator, absolutely. And we had a terrific day, and we learned a lot about each other and about our countries.”

“Anybody that takes over a situation like he did at 26 years of age and is able to run it and run it tough.”

“And then we fell in love, okay? No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters. We fell in love.”

[After the young American prisoner Otto Warmbier was returned braindead from North Korea and subsequently died] “Those prisons are rough, they’re rough places and bad things happened. But I don’t believe he [Kim] knew about it…He tells me he didn’t know about it and I will take him at his word.”

“A lot of people, I’m sure, tried to take that power away, whether it was his uncle or anybody else…And he was able to do it. So, obviously, he’s a pretty smart cookie.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,

In Trump’s own words:

“Frankly, he’s getting very high marks. He’s also been working with the United States. We have a great friendship and the countries—I think we’re right now as close as we’ve ever been … a lot of that has to do with our personal relationship.”

The late Saddam Hussein, Iraq

In Trump’s own words: [for killing his own people he suspected of being “terrorists”] “He did that so good…They didn’t read them the rights. They didn’t talk. They were terrorists. Over.”

Dictators in general,

Trump’s own words:

“I’ll just say this, they are doing – they’re outsmarting us at many turns, as we all understand. I mean, their leaders are, whether you call them smarter or more cunning or whatever, but they’re outsmarting us. If you look at Syria or other places, they’re outsmarting us.@

“@ilduce2016: “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” – @realDonaldTrump

[After Tweeting a quotation from Mussolini, above] “Look, Mussolini was Mussolini… It’s a very good quote; it’s a very interesting quote, and I know it. I saw it. And I know who said it. But what difference does it make whether it’s Mussolini or somebody else? It’s certainly a very interesting quote. That’s probably why I have between Facebook and Twitter 14 million people when other people don’t.”

In the words of the late honorable Senator John McCain, “No prior President has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyra