Donald Trump suspends Fox News boycott to praise Vladimir Putin's leadership

Bill O&#039;Reilly and Donald Trump, in happier times

(Image credit: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

published 30 September 2015

Donald Trump's weeklong boycott of Fox News ended on Tuesday night's O'Reilly Factor, when the Republican presidential hopeful told Bill O'Reilly that unlike other Fox News hosts, "you've always been fair to me, Bill." O'Reilly joked that "that's gonna change tonight," but it didn't, according to Trump. O'Reilly told Trump that calling Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) "a clown is not presidential," and Trump said that he's "leading every poll, and most polls I'm leading very big."

But if Trump isn't a fan of Rubio or President Obama, he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin — a frequent target of criticism from Trump's GOP presidential rivals — is doing a fine job, he told O'Reilly. "I will tell you that, in terms of leadership, he's getting an 'A' and our president is not doing so well," Trump said. He specifically seemed to back Putin's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad — "I'm looking at Assad and saying maybe he's better than the kind of people that we're supposed to be backing" — including Putin's military buildup in Syria. "If he wants to fight ISIS, let him fight ISIS," Trump said of Russia's president. "I say there's very little downside with Putin fighting ISIS."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.