Trump calls to dismantle 'failed foreign policy establishment,’ blames Biden for Russia crisis

In the shadows of Russia's war on Ukraine, former President Donald Trump declared Saturday night it was time "to clean out the rot of our failed foreign policy establishment" as he slammed his successor Joe Biden as unfit for office.

"Under Joe Biden, America is neither feared nor respected," Trump told a jam-packed, raucous rally on a freezing night in Florence, S.C. "There has never been a time where our country has been treated the way it is right now. Other countries are lecturing us and telling us what to do.

"And that's why we are seeing chaos and mayhem and bloodshed all over the world," he said.

America's 45th president, sounding ever more like a candidate for president again in 2024, blamed the entrenched bureaucracies of the State Department and security establishment for allowing Russia's aggression on Ukraine.

'While we need to help stop this brutal invasion, we also have to clean out the rot of our failed foreign policy establishment -- it is indeed rotten to the core -- before these total lunatics lead us down the path of national ruin and World War III."

Trump said he was confident that Republicans will recapture both chambers of Congress in the November midterm elections and provide a counterbalance to progressive policies flourishing under Biden.

"If we united, the tyrants we are fighting do not stand a chance," he said.

As he has in recent rallies and appearances, Trump relentlessly pounded the current president and his policies for rising inflation and energy prices, soaring crime, an open border and failed leadership on the world stage.

"We have a president in the most important time in history that is both physically and mentally challenged,” he said. "...“We’re losing our Country no different than if we had lost a war."

Trump said he was the only U.S. president in the 21st century to avoid a Russian invasion on his watch (Putin invaded Georgia under George W. Bush and Ukraine under both Barack Obama and Biden, declaring “my personality kept us out of any new wars!"

He urged the Biden administration and Europe to be more tough with Putin, and not take military options off the table.

"The U.S. must make it clear to Putin that he has two choices, to negotiate peace right now or else face blistering consequences," he said.