Trump claims Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if he was still in White House

Donald Trump claimed Vladimir Putin would never have invaded Ukraine if he was still in the White House, during his latest MAGA rally.

The one-term president told the crowd in Michigan that he was surprised at the Kremlin’s assault on Ukraine, and admitted that he thought Mr Putin was just negotiating a “great deal”

“I thought he was negotiating. He had 150,000 soldiers on the border, I thought he was going to make a great deal,” Mr Trump told the rally at Michigan Stars Sports Center in Washington Township, Michigan, on Saturday night.

And Mr Trump insisted that Moscow pushed forward with its unprovoked invasion of its neighbour because of the way that US troops left Afghanistan last August.

“I think that when he (Putin) saw what happened in Afghanistan, the way we ran, we didn’t to have one soldier killed there in 18 months, I said Abdul there are going to be no more of our soldiers killed. Not one person was killed for 18 months and Biden even said that,” he said.

“Then we lost 13, but they don’t talk about how horribly so many of them were wounded. This invasion of Ukraine would never have happened if I was in the White House, would never have happened, not ever.

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“I knew Putin very well, and you know they say ‘Oh well he knows Putin’, that is a good thing, good thing, not a bad thing. I know Kim Jong-un, I know President Xi of China and you know what we had no conflict, remember?”

Mr Trump then added that the Taliban now had $85bn worth of US military equipment left behind in the rapid departure from the country, and suggested that America should “maybe go in and take it back.”

He then mocked Joe Biden for his “mental and physical decline” to roars of approval from his supporters.

“I don’t think we have ever had a time in our country where we feel so low and so dejected. We are living through the most dangerous period of our lifetime and we have a president who has no idea what’s going on, what he’s doing, what he’s saying or where he is. other than that he is doing an excellent job,” he said.

“There is maybe nothing we can do to prevent Joe Biden’s mental and physical decline, but with your vote this November we can stop our country’s decline and Make America Great Again.”

Mr Trump also turned his attention to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who it has been reported is leaving the Biden administration to join MSNBC.

He described Ms Psaki as “the woman with the really beautiful red hair” and claimed the news network is trying to hire her because they need a red head in their line-up.

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