President Donald Trump arrived in Alberta, Canada, just before midnight on Sunday, to attend the Group of 7 (G7) industrialized nations meeting. By Monday morning he was publicly denouncing the intergovernmental economic group’s decision (as the G8) in 2014 to oust Russia after President Vladimir Putin invaded and annexed Crimea.
“Russia was thrown out of G8 as punishment for annexing Crimea – the first step toward invading Ukraine in 2014,” wrote Fox News Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin. “The annexation was deemed a violation of international law and the principles upon which the G8 (now G7) is founded. The move was a response to Russia’s aggressive actions and a show of unity by the other G7 nations.”
Standing next to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump declared on Monday, “The G7 used to be the G8. Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn’t want to have Russia in, and I would say that there was a mistake, because I think you wouldn’t have a war right now if you had Russia in, and you wouldn’t have a war right now if Trump were president four years ago.”
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Stephen Harper, not Justin Trudeau, was Prime Minister of Canada in 2014 when Russia was suspended from the group, because Putin started the war against Ukraine in 2014.
“But it didn’t work out that way,” Trump continued, “but it used to be the G8, and now it’s, I guess, what’s that, nine years ago? Eight years ago, it switched over. They threw Russia out, which I claimed was a very big mistake, even though I wasn’t in politics then.”
“I was very loud about it. It was a mistake in that you spend so much time talking about Russia, he’s no longer at the table. So it makes life, more complicated, but you wouldn’t have had to work. And other than that, I think we’re gonna accomplish a lot together.”
He continued to defend the Russian president, telling reporters, “Putin speaks to me, he doesn’t speak to anybody else. He doesn’t want to talk—because he was very insulted when he got thrown out of the G8. As I would be, as you would be, as anybody would be. He was very insulted.”
“And, I mean, he was thrown out by Trudeau,” Trump again wrongly insisted, “who convinced one or two people along with Obama, he was thrown out, and he’s not a happy person about it, I can tell you that. Basically he doesn’t even speak to the people that threw him out, and I agree with him.”
Trump also appeared to recite some of the talking points from his Sunday night screed, in which he vowed to attack “radical Democratic politicians” and use ICE to target undocumented immigrants in just blue cities, but Prime Minister Carney stepped in to stop him from continuing.
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Critics slammed the American President.
“Trump thinks if Russia wouldn’t have been thrown out of the G8 there wouldn’t be a war,” noted Olga Lautman, a Kremlin expert and Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). “Russia was thrown out because they illegally invaded Ukraine in 2014.”
“What humiliation for the United States to have this kremlin owned puppet representing her on the world stage,” she noted.
The Daily Beast’s Julia Davis, a Russia expert, added, “Trump remains Russia’s biggest advocate, lobbying for its re-admission to G7 (G8).”
Former Tea Party Republican Congressman Joe Walsh, now a Democrat and political commentator, responded to the American president’s remarks, writing: “Trump works for Putin. He really does.”
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