Donald Trump bizarrely blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the ongoing war in his country, despite Russia being the aggressor in the conflict.
“I think Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I’ve ever seen. Every time he comes in we give him $100 billion,” the former president said in an interview on the PBD Podcast with Trump ally Patrick Bet-David released on Thursday.
“Who else got that kind of money in history? There’s never been. And that doesn’t mean I don’t want to help him because I feel very badly for those people. But he should never have let that war start. That war is a loser.”
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Trump failed to mention that Russia, at the behest of President Vladimir Putin, invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
He has long touted claims that he could end the war in “24 hours” and that the conflict would have never began should he have served a second term in office in 2020. Despite these proclamations, the former president has yet to specify how he would fulfill said promises.
“Ukraine, remember, is not Ukraine anymore,” he said to Bet-David. “Every city almost is knocked down to the ground.. all those beautiful golden domes are laying on their side smashed to smithereens… This should have been settled before it started. It could have. It would have been so easy. If we had a president with half a brain, it would have been easy to settle.”
In late September, Trump met with Zelensky at Trump Tower, before which he bragged that the pair had a “very good relationship.” He said the same about Putin.
The former president has historically espoused pro-Putin ideas and maintained a controversially warm relationship with the Russian leader. Journalist Bob Woodward’s new book War includes allegations that Trump took “as many as seven” private phone calls with Putin after he left the presidency, a claim the GOP presidential pick did not deny, and rather said would be “smart” if he did. Should he be re-elected, Trump has threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine.
