Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was surprised by former President Trump’s continued praise of Russian President Putin even after Moscow invaded Ukraine, given how much information Trump was privy to about the fellow world leader.
“I believe he had enough time, plenty of time, to understand who Putin is,” Zelensky told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in an interview aired Sunday.
“I think he was sitting at such a high position where it’s not even possible not to recognize that [Putin] is the opponent in terms of values to your own people. He [Trump] has all the might of this country — intelligence, data — to create [a] psychological profile.”
Zelensky said he was “surprised” at Trump’s behavior “even after the beginning, with a full-fledged invasion.”
“Probably he needed this to promote his domestic policy to show that he’s ready to find understanding with the President of Russia,” Zelensky speculated.
“Ukraine in his eyes is too far away. But this war has no distances it could not cover, so I believe he needs to look at the situation without, as we say, pink glasses on,” Zelensky said, per CNN’s translation.
Trump lauded Putin’s military moves leading up to the invasion in February as “genius” and “savvy,” comments that drew ire even from some in his own party.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) refuted Trump’s “genius” comments, and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said his “adulation” of the Russian president “aids our enemies.”
After the invasion, Trump said he was “surprised” that Putin had gone through with the attack.
“I thought he was negotiating when he sent his troops to the border. I thought he was negotiating,” Trump told the Washington Examiner in an interview. “I thought it was a tough way to negotiate but a smart way to negotiate.”
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