Donald Trump's 'creepy' relationship with Putin blasted: 'He's like a 12-year-old boy'

Donald Trump’s "creepy bromance" with Vladimir Putin was critiqued by former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in a viral clip.

During a resurfaced interview on the Q+A programme broadcasted by Australian channel ABC, Turnbull said he had witnessed Trump interacting with Russia’s president a number of times.

Turnbull was in office during Trump’s first term as president in 2017. Reflecting on Trump and Putin’s relationship, Turnbull recalled: “When you see Trump with Putin, as I have on a few occasions, he’s like the 12-year-old boy who goes to high school and meets the captain of the football team. My hero!’

He described Trump’s reverence for Putin as being “really creepy” and said “the creepiness was palpable”.

At the time of Turnbull’s comments a year ago Trump was gearing up to run a presidential campaign for a second term, which we now know was successful.

Concerns were being raised about how Trump would handle the conflicts that arose after his first time, including Russia invading Ukraine in February 2022.

Trump and Putin had a phone call earlier this week, which the US president described as being "lengthy and highly productive" regarding potential peace negotiations concerning the war in Ukraine.

However Trump expressed scepticism about Ukraine's ability to reclaim all of its territory or join NATO as part of any future agreement.

The US president stated he was "OK" with Ukraine not joining NATO and remarked that it was "unlikely" Ukraine would regain significant territory in the upcoming negotiations.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said: "We both agreed we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine.

"President Putin even used my very strong Campaign motto of, ‘Common Sense.’ We both believe very strongly in it. We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations.

"We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now."

Trump's phone call with Putin came just hours after the Ukrainian president warned, "Putin is not preparing for peace" and called for unity from Ukraine's allies.

The Ukrainian president said: "This Russian terror against Ukraine will not stop on its own.

"Putin is not preparing for peace – he continues to kill Ukrainians and destroy cities.

"Only strong actions and pressure on Russia can put an end to this terror. Right now, we need the unity and support of all our partners in the fight for a just end to this war."

Trump is also trying to explain how he'll reduce the price of groceries in the US and pledged his love of plastic straws.

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