Trump keeps saying Putin's a 'genius' because he believes it: op-ed

Former President Donald Trump gave Russian President Vladimir Putin yet another shout-out, this time during a rally in Georgia over the weekend.

"The smartest one gets to the top. That didn't work so well recently in our country. But they ask me, 'Is Putin smart?' Yes, Putin was smart. And I actually thought he was going to be negotiating. I said, 'That's a hell of a way to negotiate, put 200,000 soldiers on the border,'" Trump said, adding that Putin made a "big mistake," but that "it looked like a great negotiation."

According to CNN's Chris Cillizza, Trump is saying the same thing he's been saying about Putin "almost since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine," citing Trump's comments from last month where he said Putin's invasion of Ukraine was "genius" and "pretty smart."

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Cillizza contends that it seems pretty clear that Trump meant what he initially said about Putin, because "between then and now Putin has carried out a relentless and deadly attack across Ukraine. And over that same period of time, prominent Republicans have scrambled to distance themselves from Trump's Putin praise, even scolding the former President for saying what he said."

"And yet, through it all, Trump has stuck, basically, to his original line -- that Putin is a savvy player on the world stage who is always one step ahead of the United States," Cillizza writes, adding that Trump's comments shouldn't be overanalyzed.

"Trump keeps saying it because he believes it."

Read the full op-ed at CNN.