GOP rep to Trump: Think ‘long game’ in dealing with Putin

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) early Monday offered some advice for Donald Trump, saying the president-elect must consider the “long game” in dealing with Vladimir Putin.

“He thinks, five, ten steps ahead,” Zeldin said on CNN’s “New Day,” referring to the Russian leader. ”It’s a chessboard for him. When he is making a decision and pursuing a policy and making a statement today, he knows what his next move is.”

Zeldin, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Trump in any approach has to predict how Putin will respond.

{mosads}“You can be hostile or friendly,” he said. “You have to play with what Vladimir Putin thinks are his own strengths as well as his nation’s weaknesses.”

Zeldin called Putin a “bad dude” who would love to put the Soviet Union back together.

“He’s an aggressor, a provocateur, he is an adversary to the United States,” he said.