John Bolton, former national security advisor to Donald Trump, took down a Newsmax host who claimed the 45th president “was pretty tough on Russia in a lot of ways.”
During a Monday night appearance on “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” host Schmitt ran down an itemized list of ways Trump was “very tough” on Russia, arguing that president Vladimir Putin waited to invade Ukraine until Biden was in office.
“I’m surprised that you don’t think [Trump] would have handled this better than Joe Biden,” said Schmitt.
Bolton immediately picked apart Schmitt’s “Trump was Tough on Russia” list, saying [Trump] “did not” take a tough stance against Russia.
Even when the administration sanctioned Russian oligarchs for selling S-400 missile systems to other countries, “in almost every case, the sanctions were imposed with Trump complaining about it and saying we were being too hard [on Russia],” said Bolton.
“The fact is that he barely knew where Ukraine was,” he continued, adding that the former president once asked his chief of staff John Kelly “if Finland were a part of Russia.”
“It’s just not accurate to say that Trump deterred the Russians. I think the evidence is that Russia didn’t feel that their military was ready,” Bolton said.
Schmitt then tried to get Bolton to agree that Trump deserved credit for warning European leaders about the dangers of relying on Russia for gas and oil. “He talked about that before [anyone else], nobody was talking about that at the time,” Schmitt said.
“You’re absolutely wrong!” Bolton shot back, correcting him that Ronald Reagan was the first to issue that warning.
“Fair enough,” Schmitt conceded.
Amid Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Trump has defended his praise of Putin. In a recent radio interview, he called the Kremlin “genius” and “savvy,” later adding that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “a brave man.”
Speaking at Saturday’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Trump also claimed that Putin would not have waged war on Ukraine if he had been president for a second term.
“Under Biden, Russia invaded Ukraine. I stand as the only President of the 21st century on whose watch Russia did not invade another country,” Trump said. “Under our administration, Russia respected America.”
