前总统唐纳德·特朗普周二拒绝透露他离开白宫后是否与俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京联系过，但表示如果他联系过，那将是明智的。
特朗普在芝加哥经济俱乐部(Chicago Economic Club)接受《彭博》主编约翰·米克尔思韦特(John Micklethwait)采访时表示，“我不会对此发表评论，但我会告诉你，如果我这么做了，那是一件明智的事情。”。“如果我对人友好，如果我和人有关系，那是好事，不是坏事。”
自记者鲍勃·伍德沃德的书报道称自特朗普2021年初卸任总统以来，两人多次沟通以来，特朗普与普京的互动一直是猜测的来源。
在他的整个总统任期内，特朗普一直称赞普京，包括说在莫斯科干预2016年大选的努力方面，他相信俄罗斯情报部门胜过美国情报界。
特朗普上周在接受美国广播公司驻华盛顿首席记者乔纳森·卡尔采访时断然否认两位领导人最近有过接触。
“这么说，你离开白宫后就没和他说过话?”卡尔问特朗普。“不，我没有。那是假的，”他回答。
尽管在周二的采访中一再吹捧他与普京的密切关系，特朗普坚持对他很严厉，再次表示他终止了北溪二期管道。
“我说过我不评论那些事情，”当Micklethwait反复跟进时，特朗普说。
特朗普还坚持认为，尽管2021年1月6日，一群亲特朗普的暴徒在美国国会大厦发动袭击，但2020年的选举以权力的和平过渡结束。
“人们很愤怒，”特朗普谈到对选举结果的反应，然后指出，他在乔·拜登总统就职当天回到了佛罗里达州的家中。
“那就是爱与和平。一些人去了国会大厦，那里发生了许多奇怪的事情。很多奇怪的事情，人们被警察带进国会大厦，人们尖叫着‘进去’，”特朗普说。
这位前总统期待特朗普可能的第二届政府，为他对许多进口商品征收高额关税的计划进行了辩护，批评人士称，这相当于对美国消费者征收销售税。
虽然特朗普坚持说外国支付关税，但经济学家表示，美国进口商最终会支付关税，并通过更高的价格将大部分成本转嫁给消费者。
研究一直表明，包括政府的两党美国国际贸易委员会的一项研究发现，美国人支付了特朗普对中国商品征收的几乎全部关税。
Micklethwait以多位经济学家的批评开启了对话，他们担心他的减税提议会加剧通货膨胀，并使国债增加数万亿美元。特朗普驳斥了这种近乎一致的观点，重申他的主张，即他的提案的重大增长将弥补削减，并表示汽车业和其他工厂将回到美国。
“我们都在追求增长。我们将把公司带回我们的国家，”特朗普说。“我们将把这些公司带回来。我们将进一步降低在美国生产产品的公司的税收。”
负责任联邦预算委员会(Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget)估计，特朗普的计划将增加7.5万亿美元的国债——相比之下，哈里斯的计划增加了3.5万亿美元。
特朗普声称，他不会允许外国公司在美国销售一辆汽车，并抛出了“100%，200%或2000%”等自己承认的随机关税数字。
特朗普说:“关税越高，公司就越有可能进入美国，在美国建厂，这样就不必支付关税了。”
Micklethwait说，这将需要“许多年”。
Trump: 'If I did' talk to Putin, 'it's a smart thing'
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday declined to say if he's been in touch with Russian President Vladimir Putin since he left the White House but said it would have been smart if he had.
"Well, I don't comment on that, but I will tell you that if I did, it's a smart thing," Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg Editor-In-Chief John Micklethwait at the Chicago Economic Club. "If I'm friendly with people, if I have a relationship with people, that's a good thing, not a bad thing."
Trump's interactions with Putin have been the source of speculation since journalist Bob Woodward's book reported that the two have communicated multiple times since Trump left the presidency in early 2021.
Throughout his presidency, Trump praised Putin, including saying he believed Russian intelligence over the U.S. intelligence community with regard to Moscow's efforts to meddle in the 2016 election.
Trump last weekflatly denied during an interview with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karlthat the two leaders had recently been in touch.
"So, you haven't spoken to him since you left the White House?" Karl asked Trump. "No, I have not. That's false," he answered.
Despite repeatedly touting his close relationship with Putin in the Tuesday interview, Trump insisted he was tough on him, again saying he terminated the Nord Stream II pipeline.
"I said I don't comment on those things," Trump said when Micklethwait repeatedly followed up.
Trump also insisted that the 2020 election ended with a peaceful transition of power despite the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by a pro-Trump mob on the U.S. Capitol.
"People were angry," Trump said of the reaction to the election results before noting that he traveled home to Florida the day President Joe Biden was inaugurated.
"And it was love and peace. And some people went to the Capitol and a lot of strange things happened there. A lot of strange things with people being waved into the Capitol by police, with people screaming, 'Go in,'" Trump said.
Looking forward to a possible second Trump administration, the former president defended his plans to slap significant tariffs on many imports, which critics have said will amount to a sales tax on American consumers.
While Trump insists says that foreign countries pay for tariffs, economists say U.S. importers end up paying for the tariffs and passing much of the costs to consumers through higher prices.
Studies that have consistently shown that, including one from the government’s bipartisan U.S. International Trade Commission that found Americans paid for almost the entirety of Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods.
Micklethwait opened up the conversation with a critique from multiple economists -- a concern that his proposals for tax cuts would increase inflation and raise the national debt by trillions. Trump dismissed that nearly consensus view, reiterating his claim that a major growth from his proposals would make up for the cuts, saying the auto industry and other factories will come back to the United States.
"We're all about growth. We're going to bring companies back to our country," Trump said. “And we're going to bring the companies back. We're going to lower taxes still further for companies that are going to make their product in the USA."
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that Trump’s plan would add an additional $7.5 trillion to the national debt – compared to $3.5 trillion from Harris’s plan.
Trump claimed that he’s not going to allow foreign companies to sell a single car in the United States, throwing out self-admittedly random numbers for tariffs like "100%, 200% or 2,000%."
"The higher the tariff, the more likely it is that the company will come into the United States and build a factory in the United States so it doesn't have to pay the tariff," Trump said.
That would take "many years," Micklethwait said.
