Wednesday, on the heels of reports that Russia had launched a “full-scale invasion” of Ukraine, former President Donald Trump proclaimed Russian President Vladimir Putin would not have acted in this way under his leadership.
Trump blamed the Biden administration, and the show of what he suggested was weakness, which started with the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“This is something that should have never happened,” he said. “This would not have happened during my administration. In fact, some people were saying, why didn’t this take place over the past four years during my administration? And it didn’t for a very good reason. I’ll explain that to you someday. But it wouldn’t have taken place, and it wouldn’t have taken place right now. It’s a very sad thing for the world, the country, and it is certainly sad for a lot of people that are going to be needlessly killed.”
“I do know him, and I do know him very well,” Trump added. “We’ve had many, many times together. I got along with him fantastically despite the fact that I shut down Nord Stream 2. Nobody would have heard of Nord Stream 2 if it weren’t for me. I’m the one that shut it down, and I’m the one that told Angela [Merkel] you’re doing a terrible thing by doing this, and they were going to get 75%, not 30% — 75% of their energy from Nord Stream 2. It was ridiculous.”
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