Transcript of interview with Donald Trump (excerpt re Russia)

Q: Do you think that what’s happened in Syria now with Putin intervening is a good thing or a bad thing?

Nah, I think it’s a very rough thing. It’s a very bad thing, we had a chance to do something when we had the line in the sand and it wasn’t – nothing happened. That was the only time – and now, it’s sort of very late. It’s too late. Now everything is over – at some point it will come to an end – but Aleppo was nasty. I mean when you see them shooting old ladies walking out of town – they can’t even walk and they’re shooting ’em – it almost looks like they’re shooting ’em for sport – ah no, that’s a terrible – that’s been a terrible situation. Aleppo has been such a terrible humanitarian situation.

Q: Talking about Russia, you know that Angela Merkel understands Putin very well because he is fluent in German, she is fluent in Russian, and they have known each other for a long time – but who would you trust more, Angela Merkel or Vladimir Putin?

Well, I start off trusting both – but let’s see how long that lasts. It may not last long at all.

Q: Can you understand why eastern Europeans fear Putin and Russia?

Sure. Oh sure, I know that. I mean, I understand what’s going on, I said a long time ago – that Nato had problems. Number one it was obsolete, because it was, you know, designed many, many years ago. Number two – the countries aren’t paying what they’re supposed to pay. I took such heat, when I said Nato was obsolete. It’s obsolete because it wasn’t taking care of terror. I took a lot of heat for two days. And then they started saying Trump is right – and now – it was on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, they have a whole division devoted now to terror, which is good.

And the other thing is the countries aren’t paying their fair share so we’re supposed to protect countries but a lot of these countries aren’t paying what they’re supposed to be paying, which I think is very unfair to the United States. With that being said, Nato is very important to me.

Q: Britain is paying.

Britain is paying. There’s five countries that are paying what they’re supposed to. Five. It’s not much, from 22.

Q: For decades now, Europe has depended on America for its defence. Will that guarantee be there in the future as well?

Yeah, I feel very strongly toward Europe – very strongly toward Europe, yes.

Q: Do you support European sanctions against Russia?

Well, I think you know – people have to get together and people have to do what they have to do in terms of being fair. OK? They have sanctions on Russia – let’s see if we can make some good deals with Russia. For one thing, I think nuclear weapons should be way down and reduced very substantially, that’s part of it. But you do have sanctions and Russia’s hurting very badly right now because of sanctions, but I think something can happen that a lot of people are gonna benefit….

Q: Given what’s been reported this week, what does that say about your relations with the intelligence community?

Well, we have to have, ya have to have the right people and as you know Pompeo – who’s really been received, did a good job yesterday, head of the CIA – might I think we have some very great people going in – I think we have some great people – ya know I have a lot of respect for the intelligence but a lot of leaks, a lot of fake news coming out, a lot of fake news.

Q: It’s been reported that a British former diplomat was involved in this whole thing – do you think that we, in Britain, need to look at our intelligence services?

Well, that guy is somebody that you should look at, because whatever he made up about me it was false – he was supposedly hired by the Republicans and Democrats working together – even that I don’t believe because they don’t work together, they work separately – and they don’t hire the same guy – what they got together? See the whole thing is fake news because it said the, whoever it was, intelligence, the so-called intelligence, said he’s an operative of Republicans and Democrats – they don’t work together, they don’t work together.

Q: Who do you think, then, is behind it all?

I think probably could be intelligence or it could be, it could be, the Democrats.

When I just heard it – I ripped up the mat . . . if I did that in a hotel it’d be the biggest thing – they’d have me on the front page of The New York Post, right? And the other thing, I can’t even, I don’t even want to shake hands with people now I hear about this stuff – ugh.

It’s fake news, it was totally made up and I just got a letter from people that went to Russia with me – did you see that letter – very rich people, they went with me, they said you were with us, I was with them, I wasn’t even here when they said such false stuff.

I left, I wasn’t even there . . . I was there for the Miss Universe contest, got up, got my stuff and I left – I wasn’t even there – it’s all . . . so if this guy is a British guy you got a lot of problems….