In Rambling Interview, Trump Blames Zelensky, Not Putin, for Ukraine War

In Rambling Interview, Trump Blames Zelensky, Not Putin, for Ukraine War

The war began when Russia invaded Ukraine, but Donald J. Trump said on a podcast that the Ukrainian president “should never have let that war start.”

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By Michael Gold

Former President Donald J. Trump blamed President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine for Russia’s invasion of his country in a podcast interview released on Thursday, inverting the facts of the largest military action in Europe since the Second World War.

The war began when President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia massed troops on the border and then invaded Ukraine, sending in troops and launching airstrikes on Feb. 24, 2022. Mr. Putin had long hoped to assert more control over the country, having already seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and backed pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine’s east in a proxy war.

Mr. Trump, in a rambling, muddled answer on a conservative podcast, was criticizing President Biden’s leadership when he abruptly brought up his skepticism over the administration’s continued military aid to Ukraine.

“I think Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I’ve ever seen,” Mr. Trump said, repeating a statement he has made frequently. “Every time he comes in, we give him $100 billion. Who else got that kind of money in history? There’s never been. And that doesn’t mean I don’t want to help him, because I feel very badly for those people. But he should never have let that war start. That war is a loser.”

Mr. Trump has suggested before that blame for the widespread destruction caused by the Russian invasion rests with the Ukrainian president. Mr. Zelensky, he has said, should have cut a deal with Mr. Putin to avoid the invasion.

“Those cities are gone, they’re gone, and we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refused to make a deal,” Mr. Trump said at a rally last month in Mint Hill, N.C.

On the podcast, after lamenting the devastation in Ukraine, Mr. Trump pointed the finger at Mr. Biden. Speaking with the podcast’s host, Patrick Bet-David, a conservative finance entrepreneur, Mr. Trump denigrated Mr. Biden’s intelligence by claiming that with a smarter president, the war “would have been easy to settle.”

Asked about the comments, the Trump campaign declined to clarify.

Mr. Trump’s remarks pointed to the continued concern by Democrats and American allies over how Mr. Trump might approach the conflict if he is elected in November. When Mr. Trump, in his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris last month, was pressed on the question of whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war, he did not say.

Mr. Trump has expressed admiration for Mr. Putin and speaks often about their closeness. This week, he twice dodged questions about a report that he had spoken to Mr. Putin after his presidency had ended but said that it would have been a “smart thing” if he had done so.

Though their ties have been under scrutiny since U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Mr. Putin ordered an election interference effort to help Mr. Trump in his 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump’s frequent criticism of military and financial aid to Ukraine has raised new concerns.

Mr. Trump often insists that his relationship with Mr. Putin will allow him to end the war in Ukraine swiftly. But he has not addressed whether he believes that Ukraine will have to cede territory to Russia to do so.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky met last month at Trump Tower in Manhattan, their first meeting in five years. There, Mr. Trump told reporters that he wanted to end the war with “a fair deal for both sides.”

When the two made a joint appearance on Fox News, Mr. Zelensky made it clear that it was Mr. Putin who had started the war.

“This war shouldn’t be started, and I think that the problem that Putin killed so many people and, of course, we need to do everything to pressure him to stop this war,” Mr. Zelensky said. “He is on our territory, that’s the most important to understand. He is on our territory, and how to stop the war to pressure him as we can. As we can — we have to do it.”