Thirteen months after exiting the White House and with midterm elections around the corner, former President Donald Trump is gazing backward, focused on vindicating his leadership and proving he did not actually lose in 2020.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Trump said investigating voter fraud he claims occurred in the last election is more important to Republican primary voters than issues driving American politics ahead of the next election, now less than eight months away. And the former president argued that the challenges the United States faces at home and abroad would be practically nonexistent were he still in the White House — especially Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The mishandled U.S. departure from Afghanistan, Trump continued, was primarily responsible for Russian strongman Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. “It’s a big part of the reason why Putin decided to do what he did. He would have never done that if I were in office. He would have never done that,” the former president said.Trump is considering a third run for the presidency in 2024 and would begin any Republican primary as the most formidable candidate in the field.
“I’m looking at polls where I’m way ahead. We had a 98% approval rating in one of them, in the Republican Party,” he said, before reciting the litany of his successor's perceived failures. Trump volunteered that he was intrigued by the three European leaders — from the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovenia — who traveled to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to show support for his war-torn country. “Maybe they just shouldn’t leave,” Trump said.
Trump said massive American energy exports would reduce the price of Russia’s oil and natural gas exports, which would amount to a major hit on Putin’s treasury.