Trump slams 'RINOs, Warmongers, and Fake News' over Putin

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday slammed "RINOs, Warmongers, and Fake News" for misrepresenting his remarks about Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the invasion of Ukraine last week.

After Putin's incursion, Trump criticized the Biden administration's response, and some critics latched onto his use of the word "smart."

Putin is "taking over a country for $2 worth of sanctions. I’d say that’s pretty smart," Trump reportedly said last week.

"The RINOs, Warmongers, and Fake News continue to blatantly lie and misrepresent my remarks on Putin because they know this terrible war being waged against Ukraine would have never happened under my watch," Trump wrote in a statement Tuesday.

"They did absolutely nothing as Putin declared much of Ukraine an 'independent territory,'" he said. 

Putin last week recognized the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk in the Dunbass region of eastern Ukraine. Countries did not move to sanction him until after he launched his invasion of Ukraine.

"There should be no war waging now in Ukraine, and it is terrible for humanity that Biden, NATO, and the West have failed so terribly in allowing it to start," Trump asserted. "Instead of showing strength and toughness, they declared the Global Warming Hoax as the #1 threat to global security, killed American Energy Independence, and then made Europe, the U.S., and the rest of the World dependent on Russian oil."

Critics have claimed that the Biden adminsitration's energy policy has emboldened Putin and facilitated the invasion of Ukraine, Just the News reported.

"They laid down the welcome mat and gave Russia the opening, now Putin may be getting everything he wanted, with Ukraine and the rest of the World suffering the consequences. It’s terrible, but this is what you get with Biden, the Democrats, and RINO warmongers!" Trump concluded.

The former president's criticism comes as President Joe Biden is set to speak at the State of the Union address Tuesday evening.