Former US President Donald Trump admitted that he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin was simply trying to “negotiate” when he sent troops to the Ukrainian border and was “surprised” when the Russian leader actually invaded Ukraine.
“I’m surprised, I’m surprised. I thought he was negotiating when he sent his troops to the border. I thought he was negotiating. I thought it was a difficult way to negotiate, but a very smart one.”
Trump told the Washington Examiner during a telephone interview on Tuesday evening.
Trump, who appears to have worked closely with Moscow during his presidency, said Putin has “changed a lot” since they last worked together.
“I decided that he would make a good deal, like everyone else with the United States and other people that they usually deal with – you know, like any trade deal. We never got good trade deals with Russia until I showed up. And then he invaded Ukraine, I think he changed.
I think he has changed. This is very sad for the world.
He has changed a lot,” Trump said.
The former US president has been criticized for his relationship with Putin, and more recently for not criticizing him on the eve of the invasion.
Trump’s Republican colleagues, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien, publicly denounced the Kremlin leader and said there would be no pity for Putin supporters in their party.
Similarly, Democratic President Joe Biden called Putin a “tyrant” and responded to his invasion with diplomatic and economic sanctions.
On Tuesday, Trump dismissed the notion that he had been soft on the Russian leader and said he
Moscow would never have invaded Ukraine if he was still in power. “I was very, very strict with Putin.
At the same time, I got along very well with him. But I got along very well with most of the world leaders.”
The former president also said that while in office in the White House, he often opposed Putin’s agenda. “If you think about it, who was tougher on Russia than me?” Trump asked before adding, “I gave billions and billions of dollars to NATO.
Now all this money will go to war with Russia, and I did just that. I closed the pipeline. You know, the pipeline was closed, and Biden opened it.
I also imposed the largest sanctions anyone has ever imposed on Russia.
“I was very critical of Putin in terms of the pipeline, in terms of raising billions and billions of dollars for NATO to protect Europe first of all from Russia. Nobody has done this before,” the former US president said.