North Charleston, South Carolina - Donald Trump responded to the surprising news that Russian President Vladimir Putin would prefer Joe Biden win the 2024 presidential race.

During a campaign rally in North Charleston on Wednesday night, Trump found a way to spin Putin's comments.

"President Putin of Russia has just given me a great compliment, actually," he told the crowd. "He just said that he would much rather have Joe Biden as president than Trump.

"Now that's a compliment," he continued. "A lot of people said, 'Oh, gee, that's too bad.' No, no, that's a good thing. And, of course, he would say that."

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Putin shared his views on the US presidential race earlier that same day in an interview for Russian TV, saying he preferred Biden to remain in the White House because he is "more experienced and more predictable."

"He doesn't want to have me," Trump argued. "He wants Biden because he's going to be given everything he wants, including Ukraine.

"The only president in the last five that hasn't given Russia anything is a president known as Donald J. Trump," he added.

While Trump bafflingly claimed said that Biden is soft on Russia, Republicans have long been pushing against providing aid to Ukraine as it fends off Moscow's invasion.

Throughout his presidency and during his 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly touted his good relationship with Russia, has praised Putin as a "genius" leader, and insisted that if he had won the 2020 election, the war would never have happened.

Despite his preference for Biden, Putin did agree with Trump's recent controversial criticism of NATO countries who supposedly don't meet defense spending obligations – criticism that included the threat of encouraging Russia to attack members who don't pay up.