Donald Trump decried Washington’s focus on Ukraine and said there should be a bigger focus on the US-Mexico border during a rally in Texas.
Mr Trump spoke to supporters in Conroe, where he decried the focus on Washington.
President Joe Biden’s administration is considering how to assist Ukraine as Russian president Vladimir Putin amasses 100,0000 troops on the border.
“Everyone in Washington is obsessing over how to protect Ukraine’s border—but the most important border in the world is not Ukraine’s border, it’s America’s Border but let people come in and we have no idea who they are,” he said. “The first duty of the American president is to defend the American border.”
Mr Trump said before world leaders talked about stopping invasions from other countries, the US needed to stop migrants coming into the country.
“Before Joe Biden sends any troops to defend a border in Eastern Europe he should be sending troops to defend our border right here in Texas,” he said.
During his presidential campaign and afterward, Mr Trump has frequently chafed at American commitments to Nato, saying in 2016 that the organisation was “obsolete.”
As president, he later said Nato was no longer obsolete. He then said he committed to Nato’s fifth article, which says an attack on an ally is an attack on all Nato members.
The House of Representatives also impeached Mr Trump when he tried to have Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky investigate Mr Biden’s son Hunter as a means of trying to weaken him.
But Mr Trump also criticised Mr Biden for what he said was a weak response earlier this week.
“What’s happening with Russia and Ukraine would never have happened under the Trump Administration,” he said in a statement. “Not even a possibility!”
Mr Trump held the rally in Conroe as he has teased a rematch against Mr Biden in 2024. He said Democrats would never win Texas.
“You’re going to tell them ‘Don’t mess with Texas’ because Texas is never ever turning blue,” he said.
