Former President Donald Trump once again asserted that Russia would never have invaded Ukraine if he was still president.
During an interview Monday on Fox News, Bret Baier questioned Trump about whether he still stood by a claim he made in March that he could resolve the war in 24 hours. Trump claimed to have warned Vladimir Putin that should Russia invade Ukraine, it would result in a “catastrophe.”
Trump told Baier he had a very good relationship with the Russian leader, though he noted they had not spoken “in a long while.” When given a chance to condemn the invasion of Ukraine, Trump passed, instead insisting that the question would have been moot had he remained in office.
“He wouldn’t have done it if it were me. He did it after I left,” Trump said, adding that he told Putin, “If you do it, there’s going to be hell to pay. It’s going to be a catastrophe.”
Baier asked Trump if he thought Ukraine was a separate country from Russia, to which Trump stated it was but that it used to be one country, referring to the former USSR. “Putin liked it that way,” Trump quipped.
Earlier in the segment, Trump was confronted with criticism from another Republican presidential candidate, Chris Christie, who said that Trump would end the war by giving Ukraine over to Russia.
“I would have a deal done in 24 hours from the time we started. And I would tell Zelenskyy something and I would tell Putin something, and I’d get him into a room, and I’d tell him again, and again. … And you know what? The death would stop, and the destruction would stop because, look, Ukraine has been wiped out,” Trump said.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Trump faces a crowded field in the upcoming Republican primary, which includes former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, among others.
