Trump points finger at Zelensky for Russias invasion: He should never have let that war start
Former President Donald Trump faulted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Thursday over Russia’s unprovoked, bloody invasion of his country in February 2022.During a riff about the state of the US under the Harris-Biden administration, Trump decried the billions in aid that Washington has funneled to Kyiv and declared that Zelensky “should never have let that war start.”“I think Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I’ve seen,” the 78-year-old mused on the PDB Podcast with host Patrick Bet-David.“Every time he comes in, we give him $100 billion.
Who else got that kind of money in history?“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to help him, because I feel very badly for those people,” the Republican nominee added, “but he should never have let that war start.That war’s a loser, Ukraine, remember, is not Ukraine anymore.”Trump did not elaborate further on how he believes Zelensky, 46, failed to avert the 32-month-old war, instead reserving his sharpest criticisms for President Biden, 81.
“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,” Trump contended.
“I do largely blame Biden,” he went on.“He instigated that war … [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin’s no angel, but everything Biden said was wrong.
That should have never happened.”Throughout the 2024 campaign, Trump has been adamant that the Ukraine war would never have begun if he was still president and claimed that he could end it within 24 hours, an assertion that has drawn skepticism from Kyiv.Russia annexed Crimea under former President Barack Obama and invaded Ukraine under Biden, a point that Trump has repeatedly emphasized.
Last month, Trump met with Zelensky at Trump Tower, during which the former president said he had a “very good relationship” with both the Ukrainian leader and Putin.“I hope we have more good relations between us,” Zele...