Donald Trump suggested during a fundraising event that he would have bombed Moscow in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and attacked Beijing if China invaded Taiwan on his watch, according to a Washington Post report.
The comments surprised some of the donors at the event.
James Gilmore, who served as Mr Trump’s ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told reporters in Taiwan earlier this month that Mr Trump isn’t an isolationist but that he’s simply trying to get allies to put more emphasis on their own defense.
“I believe that President Trump will be supportive of Taiwan when he becomes president. He was in his first term,” he said, according to Reuters.
China claims Taiwan is its own territory over the objections of the Taiwanese government. The Trump White House did support Taiwan, including via arms sales which have continued under the Biden administration.
Mr Trump has rarely mentioned Ukraine in recent months. Last year, he claimed that he would have the war “settled” in less than a day.
In February, he wrote on Truth Social: “We should never give money anymore without the hope of a payback, or without ‘strings’ attached.”
In April, he said: “As everyone agrees, Ukrainian Survival and Strength should be much more important to Europe than to us, but it is also important to us! GET MOVING EUROPE!”
Mr Trump praised Chinese leader Xi Jinping as recently as February. Appearing on Fox News, he was asked if he’s planning on upping the pressure in the trade war with China that he started in his first term.
While he said he wasn’t looking to restart the trade war, he also said that he would consider imposing tariffs of more than 60 percent.
“Look, I want China to do great, I do. And I like President Xi a lot, he was a very good friend of mine during my term,” he told Fox.
Earlier this year, Mr Trump said he told European leaders that he would tell Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to countries who don’t spend enough on their own defense.
During a rally in the Bronx last week, Mr Trump referenced several authoritarian leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that they were “at the top of their game, whether you like it or not.” “The world is going to respect us again” if he’s re-elected, he claimed.
The “bomb” revelation was made in a Washington Post report on Trump’s recent fundraising tour, during which he’s tested “the boundaries of federal campaign finance laws,” according to experts. At a fundraiser in New York earlier this month, Mr Trump told the attendees he wanted to hear what they had on their minds, hearing opinions on former UN Ambassador and his final Republican primary opponent Nikki Haley and several issues connected to Israel, according to The Post.
Mr Trump has routinely promised tax cuts and other policies that will be beneficial to the wealthy donors attending his fundraisers. The former president has at times surprised his own aides by asking for so much money.
But Trump advisers told the paper that the former president often makes similar policy promises to major donors behind closed doors as he does in public, and there’s no evidence that a specific promise has been connected to a particular donation.
“As Joe Biden’s backers in Hollywood and Silicon Valley are withholding their support for Biden’s failing campaign, donors across the country are maximizing their efforts to reelect President Trump because they realize we cannot afford another four years of Joe Biden’s terrible policies,” a Trump spokesperson told The Post.
The Independent has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.
While Mr Trump was reluctant to take part in fundraisers during the 2016 campaign, the former president has taken an active role in raising money this time around. During the 2020 campaign, he would reluctantly attend fundraisers, advisers told The Post.
The Biden campaign raised less cash than the Trump campaign for the first time last month. In April, the Biden campaign raised more than $51m, far below the $90m haul it took in in March.
The haul was also significantly lower than the $76m raised by the Trump campaign and the Republican Party, after the former president boosted his effort with the Republican National Committee (RNC) and attended major fundraisers.
But Democrats still lead Republicans in overall cash, and Mr Biden himself has significantly more cash than Mr Trump.
The Biden campaign reported having $84m at the end of April, while Mr Trump reported having $49m.
