Republican US president-elect Donald Trump stands with his son Barron (C), wife Melania, son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump at his election night rally in Manhattan, New York, US, November 9, 2016.

US President-elect Donald Trump has long expressed his admiration for “strong man” Russian leader Vladimir Putin. But in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published on Friday, this admiration reaches a new level, when Trump said he received a “beautiful” letter from the Russian strongman.

The president-elect said he and Putin have scheduled a phone call shortly.

Putin’s spokesman had said that Trump could help build confidence with Russia after he becomes president and would be able to persuade NATO to slow down its expansion or withdraw its forces from Russia’s borders.

Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with The Associated Press that this “would lead to a kind of detente in Europe.”

The president-elect says NATO was created to confront a threat – the Soviet Union – that no longer exists and has called the alliance “obsolete” and a bad deal for America.

Trump, received congratulatory messages from most of the world leaders when he won his landslide victory, with Egypt’s President Abdedlfatah Al-Sisi being among the first ones to send him his warm wishes.

However, Trump said China’s leader Xi Jinping was the only one who did not congratulate him.

It is not surprising, since Trump already said that “we already have a trade war” with China, adding boisterously that “we have the power over China, economic power.”

[vuukle]