Stephanie Grisham, who served as former US President Donald Trump’s White House press secretary, said on Tuesday that Trump would have had taken a very “hands off” approach to Ukraine and would have told Russian President Vladimir Putin to “go on in there”.
“I think that he would have a completely hands off approach. I think he’d be like, ‘go on in there’,” Grisham said on ABC’s The View, when asked how Trump would have responded to the crisis.
“He really admired Putin, and I saw that firsthand,” she added.
“I saw him say to Putin, ‘Hey, I’m going to be tough on you in front of the cameras. You understand? And once the cameras are gone, we’ll have a real conversation,’” she said.
“I think [Trump] feared [Putin]. I think he was afraid of him. I think that the man intimidated him. Because Putin is a scary man, just frankly, I think he was afraid of him. I also think he admired him, greatly, I think he wanted to be able to kill whoever spoke out against him,” continued Grisham, who claimed that Trump “loved the dictators, he loved the people who could kill anyone, including the press.”
Grisham speculated that unlike Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump would not fight back had he been in his position.
“And I will say this, just in watching all of this with Zelensky, Donald Trump would be 57 feet below ground hiding. And Zelensky has been out there fighting for his country,” she stated.
Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine got underway, Trump described Putin's actions in Ukraine as "genius" and "pretty savvy."
After coming under fire for the remarks, Trump clarified his comments at CPAC 2022 and said, "The Russian attack on Ukraine is appalling. We are praying for the proud people of Ukraine. God bless them all."
Trump did say he thinks that Putin is “smart” but also that American and NATO leaders are dumb. He opined that President Joe Biden’s weakness and the failures in the Afghanistan withdrawal are what prompted Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.
“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.”
On Saturday, Trump joked about bombing Russia, saying the US should disguise its warplanes and use them for a mass attack.
Speaking for 84 minutes at a gathering of some 250 Republican donors in New Orleans, Trump joked that the US should bomb Russia heavily, then blame China for the incident to spark a war between the two countries.
The US should “put the Chinese flag” on F-22 Raptor fighter jets, then “bomb the sh**” out of Russia, Trump quipped.
"And then we say, 'China did it,'" Trump continued. "Then they start fighting with each other, and we sit back and watch."