“Zero, I mean I will tell you right now, zero, I have nothing to do with Russia… I built an unbelievable company but if you look there you’ll see there’s nothing in Russia…

“I will tell you this — Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press…

“No, I have nothing to do with Russia, John. How many times do I have say that? Are you a smart man? I have nothing to with Russia, I have nothing to do with Russia. And even—for anything. What do I have to do with Russia? You know the closest I came to Russia, I bought a house a number of years ago in Palm Beach, Florida… I sold it to a Russian for $100 million. I guess probably I sell condos to Russians, OK?… I told you, other than normal stuff—I buy a house if I sold it to a Russian. I have nothing to do with Russia…

“As far as the cyber, I agree to parts of what Secretary Clinton said. We should be better than anybody else, and perhaps we’re not. I don’t think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC. She’s saying Russia, Russia, Russia, but I don’t — maybe it was. I mean, China…

“So we have to get very, very tough on cyber and cyber warfare. It is — it is a huge problem. I have a son. He’s 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers, it’s unbelievable. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it’s hardly doable.”
Sept 26, 2016 -

“[I’m] no [Putin] puppet. You’re the puppet… [Hillary Clinton] has no idea whether it is Russia [who interfered in our election], China or anybody else… Our country has no idea…

“By Russia or anybody else [I condemn interference in the election]… Of course I condemn, of course I condemn – I don’t know Putin… I never met Putin. This is not my best friend. But if the United States got along with Russia, it wouldn’t be so bad.”
Oct 19, 2016 -

“They said I made money from Russia. I don’t. It’s not my thing. I don’t, I don’t do that. Over the years, I’ve looked at maybe doing a deal in Russia, but I never did one. Other than I held the Miss Universe pageant there eight, nine years…

“I have no income from Russia. I don’t do business with Russia. The gentleman that you mentioned, with his son, two nice people. But basically, they brought the Miss Universe pageant to Russia to open up, you know, one of their jobs. Perhaps the convention center where it was held. It was a nice evening, and I left. I left, you know, I left Moscow. It wasn’t Moscow, it was outside of Moscow.”
July 19, 2017 -

“I have been far tougher on Russia than any President in many, many years. Maybe ever.”
July 20, 2018 -

“Do you really think I’d call Russia to help me with an election? Give me a break. They wouldn’t be able to help me at all. Call Russia. It’s so ridiculous.”
Oct 11, 2018 -

“So Michael Cohen…put out a statement talking about a project [Trump Tower Moscow], which was essentially, I guess, more or less of an option that we were looking at in Moscow. Everybody knew about it. It was written about in newspapers. It was a well-known project. It was during the early part of ’16 and, I guess, even before that. It lasted a short period of time…

“I decided ultimately not to do it. There would be nothing wrong if I did do it. I was running my business while I was campaigning. There was a good chance that I wouldn’t have won, in which case I would have gotten back into the business. And why should I lose lots of opportunities?”
Nov 29, 2018 -

“I would say [the latest 2016 conversation I had about it] was early to middle of the year. Now, I don’t know that Cohen didn’t go a little bit longer than that. I don’t think it would be much longer. But then he could have come back to me and said, ‘Listen, I put it together.’ Because that stuff happens. You know, you think a deal — I was running for president, I was doing really well. The last thing I cared about was building a building…

“That wasn’t business. Peter, that wasn’t business… I had no money invested. It was a letter of intent, or option. It was a free option. It was a nothing. And I wasn’t doing anything. I don’t consider that even business. And frankly, that wasn’t even on my radar. If you take a look at that, take a look at the deal. There was no money put up. There was no transfer. I don’t think they had a location. I’m not even sure if they had a location…

“My point is this — It was a free option to look at a deal, to look at deals. That was not like, ‘I’m going to buy a property in Moscow. I’m going to do — or I’m building a building in Moscow.’ Now, I would have had every right to do a deal. That’s what I did. That’s what I did…

“But the way I view it is early in the year to middle of the year, no interest. I had very little interest in the first place, and again, I viewed it as a free option. It may have been a letter of intent. I don’t know exactly what it was called. But it was unimportant. And you know what was very important to me? Running for president. And doing well. But I was running a business… I don’t want to give up a year and a half of my life, not do anything, run for president, then have to go back and say, you know, ‘I could have kept running my business.’…

“Russia didn’t help me. Russia did not help me. There was no collusion. There was none of that… I had a potential, a deal that frankly wasn’t even a deal. It was literally — I viewed it as an option. But maybe it was called a letter of intent. Something like that.”
Jan 31, 2019 -

“I have never discussed it with [Putin], no. I would. I have no problem with it…

“It never reached my desk. You know why? Because they didn’t think – intelligence, they didn’t think it was real. I wouldn’t mind – if it reached my desk, I would have done something about it.”
July 29, 2020 -

“I don’t know exactly what happened. I think it’s — it’s tragic. It’s terrible. It shouldn’t happen. We haven’t had any proof yet, but I will take a look…

“It is interesting that everybody is always mentioning Russia. And I don’t mind you mentioning Russia, but I think probably China, at this point, is a nation that you should be talking about much more so than Russia because the things that China is doing are far worse, if you take a look at what’s happening with the world… But you never ask about China; you’re always asking about Russia…

“We’ve taken stronger action against Russia than any other country in the world, as you know. I’ll tell you, President Putin would tell you that right now. But the fact that I — the fact that I get along with Russia… I do get along with — with President Putin. But I’ve been tougher on Russia than anybody else, by far.”
Sept 4, 2020 -