“I want to thank him because we’re trying to cut down on payroll,” Mr. Trump told reporters at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. “And as far as I’m concerned, I’m very thankful that he let go of a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll. There’s no real reason for them to go back. So I greatly appreciate the fact that they’ve been able to cut our payroll for the United States. We’ll save a lot of money.”

On Twitter, many initially assumed that quote was from The Onion, the ripped-from-the-headlines satirical newspaper that has long mocked presidents and politicians by exaggerating their better-known traits. But even the cutting-edge Onion has a hard time keeping up with today’s head-spinning news events.

Speaking to reporters again on Friday, Mr. Trump said his comment from the day before was only meant to be sarcastic. But he still offered no criticism of Mr. Putin, and Mr. Trump’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, did not respond to a question about why the president remains so reluctant to do so.

Mr. Trump has long expressed admiration for Mr. Putin even as American politicians of both parties have denounced the Russian leader for fomenting a separatist war in Ukraine, trying to destabilize the West, bolstering President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and collaborating with Iran. In the years leading up to his election, Mr. Trump expressed repeated praise for Mr. Putin, calling him “so nice” and a “strong leader” who was doing an “amazing job.” When interviewers asked him about the killing of so many opposition leaders and journalists, Mr. Trump has brushed it off by saying even the United States has engaged in killing.

Mr. Trump’s latest comment came just a week after he posted a message on Twitter blaming the deterioration in relations with Moscow on Congress for passing sanctions on Russia. The sanctions were passed to punish Russia for interfering in last year’s American presidential election and seizing its neighbor’s territory by annexing Crimea, but Mr. Trump made no mention of those actions.