President Joe Biden is leading the United States “into oblivion,” Donald Trump said on Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, promising to stop wasting US taxpayer money on “stupid” foreign wars as he campaigned for a possible political comeback in 2024.
“I was the only president in decades who didn’t have a war,” Trump said during his nearly two-hour speech at the Gaylord National Resort’s annual conservative gathering, claiming that if he were in office right now, “Ukraine would have been thriving, there would have been no dead people, no obliterated cities that can never be rebuilt.”
Trump promised last month that if re-elected, he would immediately call Moscow and Kiev, insisting that he knows exactly what to tell Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I know what I’m going to say,” he said again on Saturday. “I will end the disastrous war between Russia and Ukraine before I take the Oval Office… I will solve the problem, and I will solve it quickly, in no more than one day.”
At the same time, Trump chastised Biden for squandering billions of dollars from US taxpayers rather than forcing Washington’s European allies to fund Kiev.
“Is NATO matching us dollar for dollar?” he asked. “We put up $140 billion, and they only put up a fraction of that. And, you know, we all want to see success, but it’s far more important to them because of the location than it is to us.”
“We will never return to a party that wants to give unlimited money to fight foreign wars that are endless and stupid,” Trump declared.
Trump warned Americans that they are in the midst of the “most dangerous time in our country’s history,” and that “Joe Biden is leading us into oblivion.”
“I am the only candidate who can make this promise: I will prevent a third world war,” he said.
In recent months, Trump has repeatedly urged the US to take the lead in negotiating a peace settlement in Ukraine, while criticizing President Biden’s handling of the conflict. He also slammed the US’ promise to send M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, warning that the move could spark a nuclear war, as Moscow maintains that arms shipments make the West a direct participant in the conflict.
