Washington: Former US president Donald Trump has applauded Vladimir Putin and called him “Genius” over ongoing tensions with Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered troops into separatist-backed regions of eastern Ukraine, a move that could lead to a further military incursion into the nation and an untold number of lives lost and communities ravaged.
In an interview on ‘The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show,’, the former US president, speaking from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida heaped praise on Russia’s president. Trump was quoted as saying, “I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion … of Ukraine, Putin declares it as independent.”
In the rightwing podcast, Donald Trump said, “Putin declared a big portion of… Ukraine… as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful… I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s going to go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force… We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re going to keep the peace all right. Here’s a guy who’s very savvy… I know him very well. Very, very well.”
He further claimed that the reason the Russian president chose to invade Ukraine now — rather than during his own presidency — was that he had a better relationship with Putin than President Joe Biden did.
“I knew Putin very well. I got along with him great. He liked me. I liked him,” Trump said. “I mean, you know, he’s a tough cookie, got a lot of the great charm and a lot of pride. But the way he — and he loves his country, you know? He loves his country.”
Trump’s remarks come as US has ordered sanctions to try to kneecap Russia’s ability to do business with the West.
President Biden on Tuesday called the arrival of troops to Donbas “the beginning of a Russian invasion,” and ordered sanctions in response to Putin’s “flagrant violation of international law.”
Interestingly, Trump’s comments on Putin are very different from opinions held by other Republicans, and this clearly indicates the fissures in the Grand Old Party.
On the same day that Trump made his comments, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell struck a very different tone by tearing into “Putin’s aggression”.
“This should begin, but not end, with devastating sanctions against the Kremlin and its enablers. The President should waste no time in using his extensive existing authorities to impose these costs,” the Kentucky Republican said in a statement.
Donald Trump’s praise for Vladimir Putin is not surprising.
Throughout his presidency, Trump’s dynamic with Putin was controversial and led to criticism at home.
Pehaps the most infamous example of this was when Donald Trump appeared to side with Vladimir Putin over the US intelligence community on the subject of Russian election interference when the two leaders met in Helsinki in 2018.
After facing bipartisan criticism over this in Washington, Trump walked back his statements and said he misspoke. But he’s continued to shower Putin with flattery in the years since.
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