“He has a love affair with Vladimir Putin, and so I don’t think anybody in the West … Western leadership understands that love affair,” Scaramucci said in a Tuesday interview with CNN. “I don’t think anybody in intelligence agencies understands that love affair because Vladimir Putin has called for objectively reattaching republics to the former Soviet Union.”
The former president claimed he told the leader he would “encourage” Russia to do whatever it wishes and recounted saying, “You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent.”
Scaramucci on Tuesday pointed to Russia’s war with Ukraine and said the U.S. “has an obligation to the Ukrainians.”
“Well, he wanted out in 2016; he didn’t like the treaty in 2016,” Scaramucci recounted. “And so he told everybody during the term that if he got reelected, he would do everything he could to pull the U.S. out of NATO and remember, this whole thing with the, ‘you gotta pay sort of thing…’ he doesn’t really understand the treaty. No one’s actually sat down with him to explain the treaty.”
Trump on Monday doubled down on his criticism of the international military alliance and contended it was more robust under his leadership in the White House.