Trump: Xi Knows I'm 'Crazy'

Donald Trump made some startling claims about foreign policy in an interview with the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. He said he had a "great" relationship with Vladimir Putin and a "very strong" relationship with Xi Jinping, though he said he once threatened to "hit" Moscow if Ukraine was invaded, the BBC reports.

• "I'm going to hit you right in the middle of Moscow." Trump told the Journal: "I said, 'Vladimir, if you go after Ukraine, I am going to hit you so hard, you're not even going to believe it. I'm going to hit you right in the middle of fricking Moscow.' I said, 'We're friends. I don't want to do it, but I have no choice.' He goes, 'No way.' I said, 'Way.' I said, 'You're going to be hit so hard, and I'm going to take those f------ domes right off your head.' Because, you know, he lives under the domes." When asked to comment on the alleged threat, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia doesn't share details of "high-level conversations," Newsweek reports.

• Xi "knows I'm crazy." Asked what he would do if China blocked Taiwan, Trump said, "I would say: If you go into Taiwan, I'm sorry to do this, I'm going to tax you at 150% to 200%." Asked if he would consider using military force, Trump said. "I wouldn't have to, because he respects me and he knows I'm f------ crazy." The Chinese leader, who visited Mar-a-Lago in 2017, "was actually a really good, I don't want to say friend—I don't want to act foolish, 'he was my friend'—but I got along with him great," Trump said. He stayed at Mar-a-Lago with me, so we got to know each other great. He's a very fierce person."
• "No sign of slippage." James Taranto at the Journal writes that Trump "alternated between "bullying bluster and ingratiation" during the interview. He writes that "detractors have been speculating about his 'mental decline,'" but there was "no sign of such slippage" during the meeting. The editorial board previously interviewed Trump in 2015. "The 2024 Trump seems more confident and is certainly more knowledgeable about policy than he was in 2015," Taranto writes. "His discursive style of talking can confuse listeners, but that was equally true nine years ago."

(More Donald Trump 2024 stories.)