Trump accused the United States of "practically forcing" Putin to unleash a military conflict with UkraineFormer US President Donald Trump criticized the current American leader Joe Biden.
According to him, the rhetoric of the administration provoked the beginning of Russia's special operation in Ukraine, writes Newsweek.
Andrew StantonFormer President Donald Trump accused the United States of "practically forcing" Putin to unleash a military conflict with Ukraine.
The former American leader sharply criticized how President Joe Biden, who may run again in 2024, is building diplomatic relations with Russia. Meanwhile, critics accuse Trump of being too supportive of Putin.
During an interview for the TV channel Real America's Voice, which sympathizes with Trump, the former president criticized the Biden administration. According to him, the rhetoric of the administration, which sounded for several months before the start of the Russian special operation, was one of the reasons why Putin decided to start a military conflict.
"If you think about it, they were actually egging him on. Our country, our so-called leadership egged Putin on. You know, I said that they practically forced him to act the way they said. Their rhetoric was extremely stupid."
In his interview, Trump said that if he were president, Russia would not have launched its special operation in Ukraine. He also did not give any concrete examples of exactly how the United States "egged on" Putin.
In addition, Trump began touting his working relationship with Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky when Real America's Voice host Wayne Root suggested that Biden could send Trump as a mediator to negotiate a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
"I got along great with both Zelensky and Putin," Trump said. – If you remember, Zelensky behaved very well, because when they asked him about Ukraine, about the Ukrainian hoax – about that telephone conversation – he looked at them and said: “What's wrong with the telephone conversation? He [Trump] didn't do anything wrong.”"
William Pomeranz, director of the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center, questioned the validity of Trump's comments in an interview with Newsweek. According to him, Biden said that Ukraine would need to fight corruption in order to be able to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but the pretext that Putin used to launch a military special operation had nothing to do with NATO.
According to Pomerants, we will never know if Russia would have launched its military campaign if Trump had won the 2020 presidential election. However, he added that, from his point of view, Trump would not be able to "defend Ukraine."
"If Trump thinks that he had such a great relationship with Putin that he could dissuade the Russian leader from his special operation, then personally I don't think so," Pomerants said.
Trump faces Criticism after His Comments on Russia-Ukraine conflictTrump is facing criticism in response to several of his comments about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
A few days before the start of the Russian special operation, Trump said that Putin is a "genius" because he pulled troops to the border of Ukraine.
"Before us is a man who declares: “I will make a significant part of Ukraine independent.” He did not say the word “independent”, he did not say that “we will enter the territory and we will help restore peace.” I have to admit, he did a pretty reasonable thing," Trump said in an interview with Clay Travis and Buck Sexton in February.
In March, he again became the target of criticism after he, in fact, called on Putin to release information about Hunter Biden's alleged business machinations in Russia during an interview with Real America's Voice, when an accusation was made that Biden's company received $ 3.5 million from the widow of the former mayor of Moscow.
"She gave him three and a half million dollars. I think Putin should know how to respond to this. I think he should release the information. I think we should get an answer," Trump said at the time.
