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"There are many things that I do that are the exact opposite of what he would want. So what I keep hearing about that he would have rather had Trump, I think 'probably not,' because when I want a strong military, you know she wouldn't have spent the money on military," Trump told CBN founder Pat Robertson in an interview to be aired on Thursday morning.
"When I want tremendous energy, we're opening up coal, we're opening up natural gas, we're opening up fracking, all the things that he would hate, but nobody ever mentions that," he added.
"We are the most powerful country in the world and we are getting more and more powerful because I'm a big military person. That's what Putin doesn't like about me," Trump said. "Had Clinton won, our military would be decimated" and "our energy would be much more expensive."
"He wants what's good for Russia, and I want what's good for the United States," President Trump told Robertson. "From day one I wanted a strong military. He doesn't want to see that."
In the same interview, however, Trump said that he and Putin "get along very well," and "that's a good thing."
Trump's statement comes just a few days after his first face-to-face meeting with Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg.
Following the meeting, a Syria ceasefire deal brokered by Russia, the US, and Jordan was announced. The truce has been in effect since Sunday in the southwestern Syrian provinces of Daraa, Quneitra, and Suwayda.
Kremlin Comments on Trump's Remark Hillary Would Be Better for Putin
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on US President Donald Trump's statement claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin may have been better off if presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had won the 2016 election.
"I want to remind you of the words by President Putin that Russia has not interfered, does not interfere and is not going to interfere in someone's internal affairs and the country's leadership is not chosen through someone's influence, but is elected by the people who live in the country," Peskov said when asked to comment on Trump's remarks.
"I just want to recall in this connection the words President Putin has repeatedly said that we are interested in having the politicians who lead the countries take a positive approach to the future of bilateral relations because the Russian side is interested in building good relations, mutually beneficial relations. And of course, we welcome any politicians who have a similar attitude," he said.
Peskov said that he sees no "evolution" in the new comments made by Trump regarding his first face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Wednesday, Trump told the Reuters news agency that he was "very tough" with Putin during their meeting, which took place on July 7 on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg. In another Wednesday's interview, to the CBN, Trump noted that he had an excellent meeting with Putin, and they get along very well.
"As for the president of the United States of America, we have already said that the president asked, asked directly and clearly, the questions that interested him, and he received quite exhaustive and confident answers from President [Vladimir] Putin. Therefore, I do not see any evolution here, this has already been said repeatedly," Peskov told reporters answering the question whether he thought that Trump's evaluation of the meeting has "evolved."
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