Donald Trump appeared to leave Fox Business host Stuart Varney irritated after a long-winded interview on Monday in which they clashed over aid to Ukraine and the ex-president’s complaints about the 2020 election.
This morning, Trump called Varney & Co., where he went back after President Joe Biden’s reaction to Russia’s war in Ukraine, saying it “would never have started” under his administration.
He also claimed that he would have threatened Russia with nuclear submarines if he was still president and would have told Vladimir Putin: “We will cruise back and forth along your coast.”
However, the ex-president was not entirely clear when Varney asked what exactly he would give Ukraine that Biden did not have.
“There is a discussion about whether we should send planes, MiGs, to help the Ukrainian Air Force. Could you send such help? the host asked, extending a helping hand to Trump.
But Trump went even further, replying, “Well, maybe even more, to be honest.”
— What’s up, Mr. President, what’s up? Varney asked as Trump interrupted him.
But Trump launched into a tortuous response about the atrocities in Ukraine, which he called a “human tragedy,” without going into the details of what he would send other than planes.
Former President Donald Trump called Varney & Co. on Fox Business late Monday morning.
“Let me just explain that Putin says something like: “Don’t you dare send anything.” In the meantime, he is killing thousands and thousands of people. So he acts like we’re the aggressors if we send some old 44 year old plane that will probably get shot in the sky pretty quickly and he acts like we’re terrible people if we do that. . But he is killing tens of thousands of people, far more than they report,” Trump replied.
Varney again unsuccessfully tried to pin the ex-president to the ground. But Trump just kept babbling about “what can we do without planes,” without specifying what that might be.
“Well, what would I do, I would…we would…we have a huge military potential. And what we can do without planes, to be honest with you, without 44 year old planes, what we can do is huge, and we have to do it, and we have to help them survive, and they do amazing things. job,” he said.
Trump also pointed to his administration’s supply of Javelin anti-tank systems to Ukraine, which came after he attempted to withhold almost $400 million in military aid to Kiev in an attempt to get Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation into Joe Biden.
He added: “One thing I would do quickly is that I would get the oil, because if you bring the price of oil down significantly, this war will be over.”
He called nuclear power “the N-word” and refused to give Varney a direct answer about how his help to Ukraine would differ from Joe Biden’s.
Varney made one last attempt: “Okay, let me press you again on what additional military assistance you could provide to the Ukrainians.”
Trump said “drones today are as effective as anything else,” adding that “you can build drones, plus they return a huge amount of information, and that information leads the missiles to whatever the target is.”
Late last week, Biden announced an additional $800 million in security assistance to Kiev, bringing the US total for one week to roughly $1 billion.
The latest package includes about 2,600 Javelin anti-tank systems and 100 drones, as well as other defensive equipment.
Biden has also taken steps to punish the Russian economy with devastating sanctions on financial institutions and the Kremlin elite, as well as a total ban on imports of Moscow’s energy products.
Putin launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion of Russia’s neighbor on February 24. For almost four weeks, his troops shelled Ukrainian cities and killed civilians, many of whom tried to flee the fighting.
Trump got into trouble shortly before the invasion when he called it “brilliant” Putin’s recognition of two pro-Russian separatist regions of Ukraine as independent states.
He has since returned praising the Russian autocrat, and on Monday he brushed off Putin touting Moscow’s nuclear arsenal.
Firefighters work at the scene after Russian troops shelled a shopping center in Kyiv, Ukraine March 21.
Trump repeated his claim that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “would never have started” if he was still president.
He said the US was “the world’s greatest nuclear power” and recalled that Putin “constantly used the ‘n’ word” by which Trump meant “nuclear.”
At another point during the interview, Trump and Varney fell out over a better path for the Republican Party ahead of the November midterms and the 2024 presidential race.
It comes as more and more establishment Republican figures publicly distance themselves from Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him, and polls show their voter base is more interested in correcting the precipitous rising inflation and a crisis on the US-Mexico border. .
“If we go to 2022, the election and 2024 and you’re still looking back at the 2020 election and saying you really won, I don’t know if that’s very good for you or the Republican Party. Would you like to comment on this? asked Varney.
A flippant Trump countered, “I really think it’s good for me.”
“And I think if we don’t get rid of all these dishonest things that we know are there, you won’t win on the 22nd and you won’t win on the 24th,” Trump explained, adding that “no one says more about the future than I do.”
An irritated Fox Business host interrupted the ex-president.
“Wait, you think 2022 – do you think 2022 and 2024 is about the 2020 election? Really?’
Trump challenged Varney’s interpretation by launching a defensive tirade.
“No, no, no, I think in order to win the election, we need to know how they cheated, because otherwise they will cheat again. And we know how they cheated,” he said.
“Republicans and Democrats should – but won’t – Republicans have to do something about this or they will be very disappointed. And no one talks about the future more than I do, but you also have to learn from history.”