While President Joe Biden is going to meet virtually with Russian President Vladimir Putin, former President Donald Trump told Newsmax he is not optimistic that progress will be made, because Biden is in over his head.
"Now I see that Biden is going to be talking to Putin, and that's not a fair match," Trump told Monday's "Spicer & Co." when asked about Biden seeking to press Putin on his reported military buildup on the Russia-Ukraine border as Putin seeks to pressure the world not to permit Ukraine to join NATO.
"That wouldn't have been a fair match in prime time. This is not a fair match for our country."
Trump told co-hosts Sean Spicer and Lyndsay Keith in an exclusive phone interview this is what our country gets when it permitted Biden to win an election that allowed mass mail-in balloting amid COVID-19 safety protocols.
"The election was rigged, and it was stolen, and this is what we got," Trump continued. "This is not a match that should even be allowed. This is the New England Patriots playing your high school football team. That's what you have right now."
Trump criticized Biden for permitting the Germany-to-Russia oil pipeline his administration had stopped in the best interests of the U.S. and the world.
"We never had any problem," Trump said of his matchup with Putin on the world stage. "Nobody was tougher on Russia than I was, and I like Putin — got along with him very well. But I was the one that stopped the pipeline. There can be no bigger thing than that.
''I sanctioned them, and I stopped the pipeline going all over Europe. And nobody could do bigger than that. Outside of the horror show of war itself, nobody could do bigger than that," he said.
Trump also blasted the Russia narrative that Democrats adopted in seeking to tarnish and stall his administration.
"I hear how nice I was to Russia; I got along great with Putin, but I was tough with Putin, tougher than anybody ever," Trump said, adding that he had tough but strong interactions with other U.S. world rivals such as China and North Korea.
"Tougher than anybody on China, tougher than anybody ever also," Trump continued. "And if you look at North Korea, I got along great with Kim Jong Un. I got along great with President Xi [Jinping] of China, and I got along well with Putin."
Trump appeared Monday evening to pitch his new coffee-table book, "Our Journey Together," which is being released Tuesday and has already sold more than 100,000 copies in pre-order.
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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