Trump, the billionaire businessman turned GOP White House hopeful, gave a speech during the presentation of his new book "Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again" that went on sale on Tuesday.
"I think our relationship with Russia will be very good. Vladimir Putin was on 60 Minutes [US television program broadcast on CBS] with me three weeks ago, right… I believe that I will have a very good relationship with Putin," Trump said at the Trump Store in the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York.
Earlier this month, Trump said he supports Russian airstrikes in Syria, saying that if Putin "wants to go in and drop bombs on ISIL," he's fine with that.
Until recently Trump was leading the Republican primary polls, but former neurosurgeon Ben Carson is now leading the GOP race. The average of four polls shows that Carson now gets 25.3 percent of the vote, while Trump is at 24.3 percent. This is the first time since July that Trump isn't leading among the Republican candidates.