In a matter of weeks, former President Donald Trump has gone from praising Vladimir Putin as a “genius” for his plan to take over Ukraine to claiming he was tough on the Russian leader.
In February, Trump dismissed sanctions against Russia and instead looked at the attack on Ukraine as a great real estate deal.
“He’s taken over a country for $2 worth of sanctions,” Trump said last month, according to The New York Times. “Taking over a country — really a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people — and just walking right in.”
Now, Putin is facing a tougher than expected battle in Ukraine as well as crippling sanctions that have essentially crushed the Russian economy, not to mention a war crimes investigation for his attacks on civilian targets.
And Trump is trying to change his tune.
“No one was ever tougher on Russia than me,” he declared over the weekend.
A supercut video from MSNBC’s “Mehdi Hasan Show” contrasted what Trump has said lately to what he’s said about Putin over the past few years:
