He's an erratic, ignorant, scary narcissist. I would be VERY frightened if he was still president here. His initial comments:
“I said, ‘This is genius,’” the ex-president said on a right-wing podcast. “Putin declared a big portion of … Ukraine … as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. … I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s going to go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force. … We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re going to keep the peace all right. Here’s a guy who’s very savvy…”
and later: Trump again called Putin “smart” and added that the member states of NATO, on the other hand, “are not so smart. They’re looking the opposite of smart.”
More of his quotes:
In the tapes recorded with Trump for Bob Woodward's book, Trump said he gets along “very well” with Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, adding that he’s “not supposed to” have a good relationship with him because “everyone says what a horrible guy, but for me it works out good.”
Trump said of his relationships with dictators, “the tougher and meaner they are, the better I get along with them,” which he insisted is “not a bad thing.”
“The easy ones,” Trump said, referring to America’s allies, “I maybe don't like as much or don't get along with as much.”
Trump has been public in his praise of autocrats, especially in relation to Biden, calling world leaders like North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin “very sharp,” and adding that Kim, “doesn’t know about the problems that Joe has.”
Trump repeatedly said that he has a “very good relationship” with Kim – asserting that the warmth between them has averted war with North Korea – after Tweeting that he is “in good health” and declaring, “never underestimate him!”
Trump also boasted to Woodward in a separate tape about “saving” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman from Congressional retaliation after the CIA concluded he was behind the brutal killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
“We're so respected again,” Trump said during a speech to conservative youth group Turning Points USA in December. “Leaders come in from other countries, prime ministers, presidents, kings, queens, dictators, in some cases – they just don't know they're dictators, or our people don't either – but they come in and they say, ‘Congratulations. What you've done is amazing.’”
In an interview with The Atlantic, Alexander Vindman, the former Director of European Affairs for the National Security Council who was ousted by Trump after he testified against him in the House’s impeachment hearing, called Trump a “useful idiot” and “unwitting agent” of Putin. “In the Army we call this ‘free chicken,’ something you don’t have to work for—it just comes to you,” Vindman told Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. “This is what the Russians have in Trump: free chicken.”
Trump may have his own dictatorial ambitions, having repeatedly mused at recent rallies about negotiating for a change to the constitution so that he can run for a third term, which he said he feels “entitled” to.