“Since he managed to achieve success in business, that shows he is a clever person,” Putin said on NTV television in Russia early Sunday.

Putin expressed certainty that the real estate magnate knows what he’s doing, despite growing criticism seven weeks ahead of the inauguration that Trump is out of his depth.

On Friday, Trump committed a diplomatic faux pas — and risked relations with China — by acknowledging Taiwan as a sovereign nation during a phone call with the nation’s leader, Tsai Ying-wen.