Even with Russian forces amassed on Ukraine's border, former President Trump didn't expect an invasion. He was "surprised" when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered military action because "I thought he was negotiating when he sent his troops to the border," Trump told the Washington Examiner in a telephone interview from Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday. "I thought it was a tough way to negotiate but a smart way to negotiate." "And then he went in—and I think he's changed," Trump added, speaking of the invasion that began Feb. 24. "It's a very sad thing for the world. He's very much changed."
Many Democrats and some Republicans fault Trump, who held up military aid to Ukraine, for being too friendly with Putin during his time in office though Trump "seemed almost offended by the accusation," per the Examiner. "I've been very, very tough on Putin. I get a bad rap on that," Trump said. "I got along with him very well. But I got along with most [world leaders] very well." He said he modernized the US nuclear weapons program, "closed" the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would carry Russian natural gas to Germany, and convinced NATO countries to increase their defense budgets—all apparently against Putin's wishes.
"I got billions and billions of dollars" for NATO. "Now, all that money is going against Russia, so I did that. I closed the pipeline" and "I did the biggest sanctions anybody’s ever done on Russia," he said. "When you think of it, who was tougher on Russia than me?" Per PolitiFact, Trump sanctioned companies working on the pipeline, which was completed regardless. He also continued sanctions against high-ranking Russians that began under his predecessor and sanctioned five new individuals over human rights abuses. Additionally, in 2017, he "grudgingly" signed a bipartisan bill that sanctioned Russia's energy and defense industries, calling it "seriously flawed," per the outlet. (Trump just praised another dictator.)
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