President Trump dismissed some of his own aides during a phone call earlier this year with Russian President Vladimir Putin as “stupid people,” The New York Times reported Monday.

The Times, citing a source with direct knowledge of Trump’s phone call in March, reported that the Russian president lamented that some White House officials tried to stop the conversation from even happening.

“Those are stupid people; you shouldn’t listen to them,” Trump responded, according to the Times.

The comment came in the same call in which Trump congratulated Putin on his reelection, despite warnings from his national security advisers not to do so after international observers said the Russian election was full of evidence of fraud and intimidation.