Former President Donald Trump ‘barely knew where Ukraine was,’ said his former National Security Advisor John Bolton, as he snapped back at a Newsmax anchor for saying the Trump administration was ‘very tough’ on Russia.
‘In almost every case the sanctions were imposed with Trump complaining about it, saying we were being too hard,’ Bolton said in a Monday night interview with Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt. ‘He once asked John Kelly, the second chief of staff, if Finland were a part of Russia.’
Bolton continued by telling the anchor ‘it’s not accurate to say that Trump’s behavior somehow deterred the Russians.’
Former President Donald Trump ‘barely knew where Ukraine was,’ said his former National Security Advisor John Bolton (right), as he snapped back at Newsmax anchor Rob Schmitt (left) for saying the Trump administration was ‘very tough’ on Russia
Former President Donald Trump appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday night in Orlando and insisted that Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t act up on his watch because he was a ‘strong president’
Bolton instead suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t feel his military was ready to mount a widespread invasion of Ukraine.
Schmitt was parroting points Trump made himself Saturday night at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
‘I stand as the only president of 21st century on whose watch Russia did not invade,’ Trump boasted from the Orlando stage. ‘Under Bush, Russia invaded Georgia. Under Obama, Russia took Crimea. Under Biden, Russia invaded Ukraine.’
‘The world is always safer when America has a strong president. The world is always in danger with a weak American president,’ Trump also argued.
Schmitt argued that the is ‘something to be said, though, about the simple fact that there was not aggression during the four years.’
‘I mean, you were part of that administration as well and there was not aggression from Russia, and they waited him out, it seems, and made a move,’ the anchor offered to Bolton, who since leaving the Trump White House has become a critic of the now ex-president.
Schmitt pointed to Trump’s criticism of NATO members in Europe who utilized Russian energy sources.
‘I mean, he took a very tough stance against Russia,’ Schmitt said. ‘I’m surprised you don’t think that he would have handled this better than Joe Biden.’
Bolton slapped down Schmitt’s assessment that Trump took a tough stance.
‘No he didn’t,’ Bolton said. ‘He did not.’
Bolton also told Schmitt that it was inaccurate to say the Trump administration sanctioned Nord Stream 2, the Russian-German pipeline project that was officially canceled last week by the German government in the run-up to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
‘We didn’t sanction Nord Stream 2,’ Bolton said. ‘We should have.’
Schmitt asked Bolton if he believed Trump was ‘soft on Russia’ trying to push back on the idea that the ex-president was ‘Putin’s puppy.’
‘I don’t think he understood what he was doing,’ Bolton replied. ‘That’s my fundamental point. This is not really a policy argument.’
‘This is about Trump’s lack of any significant historical knowledge, his lack of strategic thinking, and frankly his lack of thinking about pretty much anything other than what benefitted Donald Trump,’ the former Trump White House official continued.
‘Why was he concerned about Ukraine in the summer of 2019? Because he wanted that DNC server. Why was he concerned about corruption in Ukraine? Because he was looking for an excuse to cover the reason he was refusing to send $250 million of security assistance to the Ukraine,’ Bolton added.
Bolton was referring to moves Trump made in 2019 that led to his first impeachment.
House Democrats charged Trump with holding up Congressionally-approved military aid to Ukraine as part of a pressure campaign against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce investigations into Joe and Hunter Biden.
He was acquitted in the Senate, with only one Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney, siding with Democrats, agreeing with one of the articles of impeachment that Trump abused his power.
Schmitt argued that the money to arm Ukraine was sent to the country.
‘It was mandated by Congress,’ Bolton pointed out. ‘He made up the reasons that he did it. He wanted to apply pressure for his own political purposes,’ Bolton said of Trump’s effort to stop the money from going to Ukraine.
Schmitt said it was unfair to say that there weren’t ‘intelligent’ moves made against Putin during Trump’s tenure.
Bolton said he didn’t say that.
‘My point was that Trump was not fit to be president, he was not competent to be president,’ Bolton argued instead.
Schmitt then pointed out that Bolton worked for Trump.
‘I did, I did,’ the former White House official acknowledged, adding, ‘to help protect American national security.’
Trump praised Putin throughout his time in the White House and sided with the Russian leader over American intelligence agencies during the July 2018 Helsinki Summit on Russian election meddling during the 2016 campaign.
In the run-up to the invasion, Trump called Putin ‘genius’ and ‘smart’ for the moves he made against Ukraine.
At CPAC Trump leaned into those comments telling the friendly crowd, ‘The problem is not that Putin is smart, of course he’s smart, but the real problem is that our leaders are dumb.’
