Putin’s spokesman does not respond to Trump’s accolade

It’s as though one of the crazies in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has nipped away from the asylum and is standing in as the Republican presidential candidate – and Americans are so besotted by his cockamamie performance that the gap in opinion polls has closed – to the point of most being within the margin of error. “And I think I would have a very, very good relationship with Russia”, Trump said at a “commander in chief” forum on the decommissioned USS Intrepid, now a floating museum, here yesterday.

Trump also pledged to launch a new USA military buildup, saying America was under threat like never before from foes like Islamist extremists, North Korea and China.

Trump speaks during a campaign rally on Tuesday in North Carolina.

A senior adviser said ahead of the speech that Mr Trump would make sure the additional spending was fully paid for but did not explain how.

Putin doesn’t have a good image in the United States, either.

The Washington Post reported that “there is strong evidence that Trump’s businesses have received significant funding from Russian investors” and his son, Donald Jr., has boasted that Russian money “make [s] up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets”.

“She’s been there for 30 years”, Trump said. “We will rebuild our military”.

Obama too could not resist an opportunity to put the boot in. He said Putin “has done so in many ways, in a very ruthless manner”.

Reading from prepared remarks, Trump spoke about modernizing the military’s equipment and increasing the number of armed services personnel.

A little later, O’Reilly told retired Admiral Charles Kubic, “He’s a bad guy and Trump is making him out like some golfing partner, come on!”

The Republican responses were a far cry from Obama’s embrace of Clinton.

He also plays the national-pride card often. He also said that energy production and economic gains during his administration would help offset costs.

As secretary of state, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton tried to improve relations with the country, touting a “reset” – complete with a reset button for a photo-op – in 2009 with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

However Clinton and Trump did not come face to face at the forum as they were grilled back-to-back by the anchor.

Trump said Clinton’s handling of Libya proved disastrous.

But what suits Trump personally can not be the deciding factor because he’s no longer just a citizen and businessman who wants to protect himself from scrutiny.

“Permitting there to be an ongoing civil war in Libya would be as threatening and as unsafe as what we are seeing in Syria”, she said. “Her destructive policies have displaced millions of people, then she has invited these refugees into the West with no plan to screen them”. In fact, he supported the war. Trump has condemned the war during his campaign and said he would avoid lengthy conflicts in the Middle East.