Donald Trump Says Putin is Smart and ‘Our Leaders Are Dumb’ in CPAC Speech

(Mediaite)

Donald Trump spoke at CPAC 2022 on Saturday and said on the subject of Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin is smart but American and NATO leaders are dumb. He said that’s part of the reason this “an assault on humanity” is taking place on President Joe Biden‘s watch.

Trump said Biden’s weakness and the failures in the Afghanistan withdrawal are what prompted Putin’s decision to invade, he has “no doubt.”

“Nobody could ever believe how bad and weak and grossly incompetent he has been. And when you have a weak president who is not respected by other nations, you have a very chaotic world,” said Trump. “And the world hasn’t been this chaotic since World War II.”

“I have no doubt that President Putin made his decision to ruthlessly attack Ukraine only after watching the pathetic withdrawal from Afghanistan, where the military was taken out first,” he said. “Our soldiers were killed and American hostages, plus 85 billion dollars worth of the finest equipment anywhere in the world were left behind.”

Trump has taken flack for over a week for his continued praise of Putin, whom he described as “savvy” among other things, and he brought up that criticism in his remarks on Saturday.

“Yesterday, reporters asked me if I thought President Putin was smart. I said, of course, he’s smart,” Trump said, and explained that he took criticism for that comment but he likes “to tell the truth.”

“Yes, he’s smart. The NATO nations and indeed the world as he looks over what’s happening strategically, with no repercussions or threats whatsoever. They’re not so smart,” Trump said. “They’re looking the opposite of smart.”