Trump says he was surprised by Putin’s invasion: ‘I thought he was negotiating’

‘I thought he was negotiating when he sent his troops to the border,’ former president says

Donald Trump has expressed surprise at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, saying that he thought he was simply using the threat of an invasion as a negotiating tactic.

In an interview with the Washington Examiner on Tuesday, Mr Trump said, “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 tough way to negotiate but a smart way to negotiate,” the former president added.

“I figured he was going to make a good deal like everybody else does with the United States and the other people they tend to deal with — you know, like every trade deal. We’ve never made a good trade deal until I came along,” Mr Trump claimed. “And then he went in — and I think he’s changed ... It’s a very sad thing for the world. He’s very much changed.”

Mr Putin initially recognized two regions in eastern Ukraine as independent and moved what he called “peacekeeping” forces into those areas.

Mr Trump said at the time that he watched the increase in tension on TV.

“And I said: ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine … Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful,” he said.

He added that it was a “smart move” to send in “the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen”.

“Here’s a guy who’s very savvy … I know him very well,” Mr Trump said concerning Mr Putin in an interview on The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show published on 22 February.

“Very, very well. By the way, this never would have happened with us. Had I been in office, not even thinkable. This would never have happened,” Mr Trump claimed at the time. “But here’s a guy that says, you know, ‘I’m gonna declare a big portion of Ukraine independent’ – he used the word ‘independent’ – ‘and we’re gonna go out and we’re gonna go in and we’re gonna help keep peace.’ You gotta say that’s pretty savvy.”

Speaking to the Washington Examiner on Tuesday, Mr Trump said that he had “been very, very tough on Putin. I get a bad rap on that”.

He repeated his claim that the invasion wouldn’t have occurred if he had been president, suggesting that Russia would have been too concerned about the US response.

“At the same time, I got along with him very well. But I got along with most [world leaders] very well,” Mr Trump told the outlet.

“When you think of it, who was tougher on Russia than me?” Mr Trump said.

“I got billions and billions of dollars” for Nato, he claimed. “Now, all that money is going against Russia, so I did that. I closed the pipeline. You know, the pipeline was closed, and Biden opened it. Plus, I did the biggest sanctions anybody’s ever done on Russia.”

This map shows the extent of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (Press Association Images)

In 2019, a Washington Post analysis stated that Mr Trump “consistently misunderstands Nato financing”.

Mr Trump has been making inaccurate claims about the funding of the alliance since he was a candidate.

“Trump is simply wrong on direct funding and is imprecise and possibly out of date on indirect funding,” The Post noted in 2016 before Mr Trump became president.

“I’ve been very critical of Putin from the standpoint of the pipeline, from the standpoint of raising billions and billions of dollars in Nato to protect, primarily, Europe against Russia,” Mr Trump said on Tuesday. “Nobody else did that.”

In 2019, Mr Trump approved sanctions on any firm that would help Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned gas company, finish a pipeline to the European Union. The pipeline, Nord Stream 2, has been finished but its opening has been indefinitely delayed due to the Russian invasion as EU members deliberate how to become less reliant on Russian energy.

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