Trump says if he spoke to Putin ‘it’s a smart thing’ to do

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump attend a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former President Donald Trump declined to say on Tuesday whether he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving office in 2021 but said if he had done so it would be wise.

“If I did it’s a smart thing,” Trump said in answering questions from a Bloomberg News interviewer at the Chicago Economic Club.

“War,” a new book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, says Trump has spoken to Putin on several occasions since he left the White House in January 2021.

(Reporting By Steve Holland, Doina Chiacu and Jim Oliphant; Editing by Chris Reese)