Former US President Donald Trump on Saturday condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and said he was praying for Ukrainians, marking a sharp change in tone from earlier this week when he praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump made his remarks at the conservative CPAC meeting in Florida hours after the United States and allies announced sweeping new sanctions that would kick some Russian banks out of key global payments systems and limit Russia’s central bank’s ability to support the ruble.
Earlier this week, Trump angered some members of the Republican Party by describing Putin’s actions in Ukraine, where cities have been attacked by Russian artillery and cruise missiles, as “genius” and “quite experienced.”
Addressing an adoring crowd at the CPAC, Trump expressed empathy for Ukrainians and this time praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, calling him “courageous” as he remains in Kiev, the capital.
“The Russian attack on Ukraine is terrible. We are praying for the proud people of Ukraine. God bless you all,” Trump said.
Trump also used his pulpit at the CPAC, which bills itself as the world’s largest conservative gathering, to criticize the current US president, Democrat Joe Biden, saying that Putin took advantage of being “weak” to attack.
Trump linked the invasion to the 2020 US presidential election, a fixation of his own, again falsely saying that fraud was to blame for Biden’s victory.
“As everyone understands, this horrible disaster would never have happened if our election hadn’t been rigged and if I were the president,” he said, to which a woman in the packed audience replied, “you are the president!”
Trump also cited Russia’s invasion of Georgia under George W. Bush and Crimea under Barack Obama before declaring, “I am the only president of the 21st century under whose watch Russia has not invaded another country.”
Trump addressed his earlier praise of Putin, saying he was right that Putin was smart because he was surpassing world leaders. “The real problem is that our leaders are dumb, dumb. So dumb,” he said.
In an interview released early Saturday, Biden scoffed at Trump’s comment that Putin is a “genius.”
“I believe as much in Trump saying that Putin is a genius than when he thought of himself as a stable genius,” Biden said.
During the CPAC’s four-day conference in Orlando, Florida, which ends on Sunday, conservatives echoed the line that Putin decided to invade Ukraine because he knew Biden was “weak.” Republican politicians have avoided praising Putin.
Earlier on Saturday, JD Vance, a Republican candidate for a US Senate seat in Ohio, said the US political class was fixated on the conflict in Ukraine at the expense of problems closer to home, such as record crossings on the Mexican border.
“I’m tired of hearing that we have to worry more about people 6,000 miles away than people like my mom, my grandparents and all the kids affected by this crisis,” said Vance, a venture capitalist and author.
Source: CNN Brasil

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