Trump made the remarks to a series of fundraisers as he campaigned for re-election last year. The leaked audio was published by CNN after it was obtained by the authors of a forthcoming book that chronicles Trump’s return to power.
The comments echo claims Trump has repeatedly made in public, including that he prevented the wars from starting during his first term and would have done so had he won the 2020 election.
“If I were president, this war would have never happened,” he has claimed a number of times, including at the G7 summit in Canada last month.
In October last year, he said he had warned Putin not to invade Ukraine. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal he claims he said: “‘I’m going to hit you right in the middle of fricking Moscow.’ I said, ‘We’re friends. I don’t want to do it, but I have no choice.’ He goes, ‘No way.’ I said, ‘Way.’”
Trump has grown increasingly frustrated, however, as his efforts to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza appear to have stalled.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, left the White House yesterday without announcing that a ceasefire in Gaza had been reached.
‘I’m not happy with Putin’
The US president also launched another furious tirade against Putin yesterday, accusing the Russian leader of “throwing bulls***” at him in their discussions about the war in Ukraine.
He said Putin’s words were “meaningless” as he ramped up his rhetoric against the Russian leader following a series of major strikes on Ukrainian cities.
“I’m not happy with Putin, I can tell you that much right now, because he’s killing a lot of people,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting. “We get a lot of bulls*** thrown at us by Putin. You want to know the truth. He is very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
Trump also suggested he was open to imposing fresh sanctions on Moscow after the Senate put forward a bill proposing additional penalties. Asked about the bill, he said: “I’m looking at it very strongly”.
