President-elect Donald Trump said his election victory ‘gives me a very big mandate to do things properly’ in a newly released video by Indonesia’s president.
Prabowo Subianto could be heard congratulating Trump, adding, ‘Wherever you are, I am willing to fly to, to congratulate you personally sir.’
‘We had a great election in the U.S…. Amazing what happened, we had tremendous success. The most successful in over 100 years they say. It’s a great honor and so it gives me a very big mandate to do things properly,’ Trump told him at one point in the conversation.
Subianto also told Trump, ‘We were all shocked when they tried to assassinate you, but we are very happy that the almighty protected you sir.’
‘Yes, I got very lucky. I just happened to be in the right place in the right direction otherwise I wouldn’t be talking to you right now,’ Trump responded. ‘I got quite lucky actually, somebody was protecting me I guess.’
Subianto, a former Indonesian military general and defense minister, was sworn in as the country’s eighth president on Oct. 20.
‘Whenever you are around you let me know and I’d like to also get to your country sometime, it’s incredible, the job that you are doing is incredible,’ Trump told Subianto during the call. ‘You’re a very respected person and I give you credit for that, it’s not easy.’
‘Please send the people of Indonesia my regards,’ he added.
In a statement on X alongside the video, Subianto said, ‘I am looking forward to enhance the collaboration between our two great nations and to more productive discussions in the future.’