“Have you spoken to Vladimir Putin since your election?” Time magazine asked Donald Trump during its latest interview. It seemed like a simple, straightforward question about an issue that’s come up repeatedly in recent weeks. All the president-elect had to do was say yes or no.
The Republican did neither. “I can’t tell you,” Trump replied. “I can’t tell you. It’s just inappropriate.”
At that point, the interview moved on, but given the larger context, it’s probably best not to brush past this too quickly.
If Trump’s refusal to talk about this sounds at all familiar, it’s because he’s adopted this posture before. In fact, as regular readers might recall, it was in early May 2016, as political observers just started to consider questions about Trump and his relationship with the Russian leader, when the then-candidate was asked whether he’d spoken to Putin. “I don’t want to say,” the Republican replied.
A day later, Trump sat down with Fox News’ Bret Baier, who followed up on the question. “Yeah, I have no comment on that,” the future president replied. “No comment.”
The Fox host, apparently surprised, said one of the things people liked about Trump was his willingness “to answer any question.” The candidate didn’t seem to care. “Yeah, but I don’t want to comment,” he added.
It was an early indication that Trump’s relationship with his benefactor in Moscow was, to understate matters, problematic. After all, the Republican hardly ever said, “No comment” in response to any question on any subject. He loved, and continues to love, commenting — even when he has no idea what he’s talking about. But asked about whether he’d had direct interactions with Putin, the then-candidate suddenly had nothing to say.
Matters did not improve in the years that followed. In fact, The Washington Post reported in 2019 that Trump and the Russian leader had a series of undisclosed chats during the Republican’s first term in the White House. (The reporting was not independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News.)
More recently, Bob Woodward’s latest book, citing a senior Trump aide, alleged that Trump and Putin had direct conversations “as many as seven times” after he left office following his 2020 defeat. (The account is credited to a single anonymous aide and provides no further details. Neither NBC News nor MSNBC independently confirmed the reporting.) The Kremlin denied the accuracy of the claim, as did Trump initially, though in October — just a few weeks before Election Day 2024 — the Republican boasted that it’d be “a smart thing” if he had secret communications with the Russian autocrat.
Two months later, Trump said he “can’t” say whether he had private chats with Putin, adding that it’d be “inappropriate” to discuss it.
Whether the incoming American president understands this or not, that’s a bizarre answer. Since he won a second term, Trump hasn’t been shy about touting his interactions with foreign leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, among others.
The president-elect has bragged about the conversations, touted them on his social media platform, and referenced the interactions publicly. Trump hasn’t expressed the slightest reservations about promoting his discussions with foreign leaders — and by all appearances, he’s proud of them, using the chats as proof of his importance.
And yet, while he’s perfectly eager to talk about these chats with foreign leaders, Trump apparently believes he has to remain silent when it comes to Putin.
For those concerned about Trump’s relationship with his friend in Moscow, this isn’t going to help.
