The war in Ukraine was started by Russia's Vladimir Putin, but former President Donald Trump said President Joe Biden and those who worked to elevate him to the White House are truly the ones to blame.
"First of all, it should have never started," Trump told Right Side Broadcasting Network's Brian Glenn in an exclusive sit-down interview that aired Thursday night. "It would have never started, had I been president. There was no chance of this war starting."
But the next part of Trump's remarks are where the pointed blame for Biden comes in.
"Frankly, I don't think Putin wanted to do it," Trump continued. "I think he was forced in by the statements being made by Biden."
Trump's remarks are a reference to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's pre-war admonishment of Biden and his administration to stop saying Russia was on the verge of invading the country.
Zelenskyy denounced Biden for destabilizing and putting his country people in fear of war. Then Putin began the "special military operation" on Feb. 24 last year.
"It's something so sad to see, because no matter what happens now, it could never been like what it could have been with nobody dead and no cities demolished," Trump told Glenn.
"You look at some of these cities, they're absolutely in ashes."
Teasing himself as the ultimate answer to peace in Ukraine in 2025, Trump said he has the secret sauce to ending the war in "24 hours," without revealing what it is.
"We have to do something about it," Trump said. "That war has to stop, and it has to stop now. And it's easy to do."
Trump also said it was he and not Biden who has helped Europe prepare for Putin's aggressions, having forced NATO countries to pay "their fair share" for defense.
Trump said the U.S. was almost "100% funding" NATO before he pressed "delinquent" countries to pay up.
But Biden is funding Ukraine's war defense to nearly a ratio of "10 times" that of the rest of Europe right now, Trump added.
"The numbers are not fair; it's just not fair to the United States," he said.
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