“Obama was a patsy for Russia. He was a total patsy,” President Donald Trump said. | Olivier Douliery/Getty Images Trump: I’ll be Putin’s ‘worst nightmare’ if talks fail, unlike ‘patsy’ Obama

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “worst nightmare” if the pair’s budding relationship falters, unlike former President Barack Obama, who Trump said was a “patsy” for Russia.

“I think he knows that,” Trump said. “I’ll be his worst nightmare. But I don’t think it’ll be that way. I actually think we’ll have a good relationship.”


Trump, in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that was taped Thursday and aired Friday, reiterated the argument that he and his allies have regularly made, that unlike his predecessor’s, the Trump administration has been tough on the Kremlin.

He pointed to the dozens of Russian diplomats his State Department has expelled and the sanction packages his Treasury Department has imposed, contrasting it with Obama’s infamous 2012 hot mic moment with Russia’s then-president, Dmitry Medvedev, when he said he would have “more flexibility” after that year’s presidential election, his final campaign.

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“Look at the sanctions I’ve put on. look at the diplomats I threw out. Look at all of the things that I’ve done. Nobody else did what I’ve done. Obama didn’t do it. Obama was a patsy for Russia. He was a total patsy. Look at the statement he made when he thought the mics were turned off, OK?” Trump said. “Getting along with President Putin, getting along with Russia is a positive, not a negative. Now, with that being said, if that doesn’t work out, I’ll be the worst enemy he’s ever had. The worst he’s ever had.”

Trump’s insistence that he is prepared for an adversarial relationship with Putin comes at the end of a week in which he has faced withering criticism for Monday’s bilateral meeting and press conference with the Russian president, facing waves of criticism over what has been perceived as his overly warm relationship with Putin and apparent unwillingness to confront him.

The U.S. president drew particular scorn this week over a remark at Monday’s bilateral press conference, where he told reporters that he saw no reason to believe Russia had been behind the 2016 campaign of cyberattacks intended to interfere in that year’s presidential election, a direct contradiction of the U.S. intelligence community. Blowback was so severe that Trump was forced a day later to admit a mistake — a rare step for him — insisting that he had meant to say “wouldn’t” when he said “I don’t see any reason why it would be” Russia.

The next day, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was on clean-up duty after the president responded “no” when asked by reporters if Russia was still mounting election-interference efforts in the U.S., another rejection of his intelligence community’s assessment. Sanders later told reporters that the president’s “no” was a refusal to answer questions, not an answer to whether or not Russia’s election meddling was ongoing.

And on Thursday, the White House was forced to backtrack Trump’s stated openness to an agreement between the U.S. and Russia that would allow American investigators to interrogate Russians indicted on charges by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller in exchange for the U.S. making certain Americans, including an Obama-era ambassador to Russia, available to Russian prosecutors.

At Monday’s press conference, Trump called the suggestion an “incredible offer” from Putin, but with the Senate preparing to adopt a resolution rebuking such an agreement — it would later do so 98-0 — Sanders released a statement that the proposal “was made in sincerity by President Putin, but President Trump disagrees with it.”