President Donald Trump blamed Ukraine “for taking on a nation that’s 10 times” its size — despite it being Russian President Vladimir Putin who invaded the country.
The president was speaking on Fox & Friends Tuesday morning, where he was gently quizzed about Monday’s meeting at the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders following last week’s Alaska summit with Putin.
Co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked Trump whether any land swaps between the warring countries were discussed at Monday’s meeting, to which the president responded by saying that Ukraine would “get a lot of land,” before he launched into a ramble about Russia’s military might.
“Russia is a powerful military nation. You know, whether people like it or not, it’s a powerful nation. It’s a much bigger nation,” Trump said. “It’s not a war that should have been started. You don’t do that. You don’t take on a nation that’s 10 times your size.
“If it wasn’t for the greatest military equipment, we make the greatest military equipment in the world. And we gave them, you know… whatever they took probably a lot of money too,” Trump added.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Trump has repeatedly blamed the conflict on his predecessors, former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, but not Putin.
“The thing is a mess. This was started by Joe Biden,” Trump told the network. “This was a war that should have never happened.”
The president also lashed out at Obama and claimed he “gave Crimea away” in 2014 in “the worst real estate deal I’ve ever seen.”
Obama has faced criticism in the past for “underestimating” the threat from Russia and how his administration handled the 2014 invasion of Ukraine, where Putin illegally annexed the peninsula of Crimea.
The former president previously defended himself against the backlash and said the circumstances were not the same as the 2022 invasion.
After greeting Putin warmly in Alaska last week, Trump touted his “very good relationship” with the Russian strongman but told Fox & Friends his priority was getting a deal.
“I called President Putin yesterday, and I do have a good relationship, but it, you know, only matters if we get things done,” he said. “Otherwise, I don’t care about the relationship. I do have a good relationship with him, but I want to get things done.”
At Monday’s historic meeting with Zelensky and European leaders— including U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte—Trump gave a commitment of American resources to support the future security of Ukraine.
“Everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine,” Trump wrote on Truth Social following Monday’s meetings.
Trump said he called Putin himself and they “began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelensky.”
“After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself,” Trump said. “Again, this was a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years.”
