Former President Trump claimed on Tuesday that he was “very tough” on Russian President Vladimir Putin and took credit for “raising billions of dollars for NATO” to protect Europe against Russia.
Trump’s comments came during an interview with the Washington Examiner published Tuesday.
Addressing critics who have gone after him for calling Putin smart in his tactics leading up to the war, Trump said: “I’ve been very, very tough on Putin. I get a bad rap on that.”
“At the same time, I got along with him very well. But I got along with most [world leaders] very well,” Trump told the outlet.
He then pivoted to take credit for the unity of NATO countries.
“I’ve been very critical of Putin from the standpoint of the pipeline, from the standpoint of raising billions and billions of dollars in NATO to protect, primarily, Europe against Russia,” Trump added. “Nobody else did that.”
The former president also told the Examiner that he was surprised that Putin invaded Ukraine while bragged that the United States never made good trade deals “until I came along.”
Read the full interview in The Washington Examiner.
