U.S. President Donald Trump has stated that the war in Ukraine likely would not have happened if the West had not expelled Russia from the Group of Eight, arguing that Moscow’s exclusion from the format was one of the decisions that fundamentally altered Europe’s long-term security architecture.
In an interview with the news portal Axios, Trump said that former U.S. President Barack Obama, along with “one or two other countries,” did not want Russian President Vladimir Putin to remain part of the group.
“They wanted Putin out. It used to be the G8. It would have been much better if it had stayed that way. You probably wouldn’t have had the Russia-Ukraine war,” Trump said.
Speaking after the G7 summit, Trump expressed regret that Putin was not present at the gathering of the world’s leading Western economies, noting that Russia had been a member of the format until it was expelled following the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
However, the Axios interview extended far beyond the topic of Ukraine. Trump discussed presidential power, the war with Iran, relations with Israel, U.S. allies, and his own place in history.
The American president said that after the conflict with Iran, he realized that “there are no limits” to his power. He repeatedly referred to power through the lens of influence over other world leaders, claiming that participants at the G7 summit believed him when he jokingly told them that “he was the boss.”
Trump also stated that Israel “respects him greatly” and that the country “will do what he says.” Speaking about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said they have a good relationship but added that Netanyahu “sometimes needs to be kept under control.”
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“Without me, Israel would not exist today,” Trump said.
The interview was conducted ahead of the publication of the book Regime Change by journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, in which the authors describe Trump’s views on power and his comparisons between his presidency and the authority wielded by some of history’s most famous rulers and conquerors.
According to the authors, Trump showed them a document claiming that, as President of the United States, he was more powerful than historical figures such as Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Adolf Hitler.
The document concludes that Trump’s willingness to exercise power on a global scale “makes him by far the most powerful person ever to walk this planet.”
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Source: Politika Foto: Getty images