Former President Donald Trump met with sharp criticism on Monday after he released a new statement taking credit for the success of NATO and claiming to have helped arm Ukraine.


Trump, who has opposed NATO policies for a long time and even discussed pulling the U.S. out of the military alliance, claimed in his new remarks that "there would be no NATO" without him. "I hope everyone is able to remember that it was me, as President of the United States, that got delinquent NATO members to start paying their dues, which amounted to hundreds of billions of dollars. There would be no NATO if I didn't act strongly and swiftly. Also, it was me that got Ukraine the very effective anti-tank busters (javelins) when the previous Administration was sending blankets. Let History so note!," Trump said in the statement released on Monday.


Critics of Trump quickly condemned this statement, noting his historic opposition to NATO and pointing out that his administration previously withheld military assistance from Ukraine in order to seek information on Joe Biden.


In late 2019, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives over allegations that he held hundreds of millions of dollars in aid hostage and pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Biden. He was later acquitted by a Republican-led Senate in February 2020.


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"It was trump that undermine U.S. national security & froze military assistance to Ukraine, leaving that lion of a nation, vulnerable to attack. It was Trump's attacks on NATO that encouraged Putin to believe NATO was fragile," former Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who served under Trump, wrote on Twitter.








Politico reporter Sam Stein also pointed out inconsistent messaging in Trump's new statement on Monday.


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"Trump, who discussed pulling the US from NATO takes credit for NATO's existence in a new statement. Trump, who threatened to withhold weapons funding from Ukraine to get dirt on Biden, takes credit for Ukrainian weapons in same statement," he wrote on Twitter. Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias also responded to Trump's statement by calling him a "relentlessly dishonest egomaniac."


Trump's latest comment comes as Russia and Ukraine have entered their fifth day of fighting, after Russian President Vladimir Putin moved to invade the eastern European country on Thursday. The U.S., NATO and European Union have each condemned Russia's actions and moved to punish Moscow with severe economic sanctions.


Trump, who has long been friendly with Putin, this week called the Russian leader "very smart," and praised the invasion as "genius" and "wonderful." However, in the past few days, the former GOP president has appeared to change his tune on the matter, and instead labeled the ongoing war as "appalling" and appeared to issue support for Ukrainians.


 

 

Donald Trump is a liar, a cheat and a thief.