Former President Donald Trump has been making hawkish comments inside closed door fundraising events – even saying he would have ‘bombed’ world powers, according to a new report.
Trump, who kept the foreign policy on edge with statements like vowing to bring ‘fire on fury’ on North Korea threatened the U.S., reportedly made the comment while appealing to donors to back his campaign, where he is leading President Joe Biden in the polls.
‘At one event, he suggested that he would have bombed Moscow and Beijing if Russia invaded Ukraine or China invaded Taiwan, surprising some of the donors,’ the Washington Post reported.
One of those events – Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine – began in February 2022, Russia’s war in the Donbas began in 2014.
The other event, a feared Chinese invasion of Taiwan, is one U.S. policymakers are vowing to prevent.
Both Russia and China are nuclear powers, which is one reason the Biden administration has insisted the U.S. will not put boots on the ground in Ukraine even while providing billions in lethal weaponry and other support.
Trump has long credited his own tough rhetoric and uncertainty about his moves as providing protection. He said Russia’s Ukraine invasion ‘would never have happened’ if he were president.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment on the reported remarks.
Trump during his presidency bragged about his ability to get along with leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Post account included Trump’s foreign policy comment amid a series of crass pitches that appeared to link political support to his vow to put a stop to expiring tax cuts for wealthy Americans.
‘I’m not having lunch. You’ve got to make it $25 million,’ Trump said he told a donor who wanted to dine with him after saying he’d offered a $1 million contribution to Trump’s reelection effort.
Trump told a donor who had given between $2 million and $3 million to Republican causes that he wanted $25-50 million or would not be ‘very happy.’
Trump issued an odd boast last week about Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is being held in Russia.
Trump posted last week: ‘Evan Gershkovich, the Reporter from The Wall Street Journal, who is being held by Russia, will be released almost immediately after the Election, but definitely before I assume Office. He will be HOME, SAFE, AND WITH HIS FAMILY. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do that for me, but not for anyone else, and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!
In a May CNN town hall, Trump said of the war in Ukraine, ‘I will have that war settled in one day, 24 hours.’
Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese products that the Biden administration has kept intact.
Trump’s administration backed Taiwan and provided arms sales.
“I believe that President Trump will be supportive of Taiwan when he becomes president. He was in his first term,” said former Trump appointee James Gilmore, the former Virginia governor who was Trump’s ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.