Trump Boasts About 'Very Good Relationship' With Putin As Biden Visits Ukraine Amid Russia War

Donald Trump on Tuesday boasted about his "very good relationship" with Russian leader Vladimir Putin after President Joe Biden's secret visit to Kyiv the day before.

Speaking during an appearance at a rally at the Hilton Palm Beach Airport hotel, Trump reasserted that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine would never have happened had he been the president.

"Putin never, ever would have gone into Ukraine if I were president," Trump told supporters, The Rolling Stone reported. "I actually had a very good relationship [with Putin.]"

In addition to touting his relationship with Putin, Trump defended a past remark in which he said he trusted the Russian leader more than his own intelligence community, adding that he "was right about that, too."

"Remember when [the media] hit me with a question: 'Who do you trust: … your intelligence people, Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Lisa Page (how about Lisa)? Or Putin?' And I said: You know, that could be the toughest question I've ever been asked as a politician. And then when I really didn't give them a very good answer in terms of exactness … oh, all hell broke loose," Trump said. "But that's okay, you know, that's okay. And it turned out I was right. I was right about that, too."

Trump's comments come after Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv early Monday morning to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. During the visit, Biden pledged a new military aid package worth about $460 million to Ukraine.

The package will include ammunition for long-range weapons systems, artillery and mortar rounds, surveillance radars, anti-armor systems, Bradley vehicles, Claymore anti-personnel munitions, night vision devices and medical supplies.

The United States has now pledged approximately $29.8 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the invasion began last year. Under the Biden administration, a total of $30.4 billion in aid has been committed to Ukraine.

Apart from the military aid packages, Biden also announced plans to impose a new round of sanctions on Russia targeting "elites and companies" that tried to evade previous sanctions and "backfill Russia's war machine." The Biden administration is set to announce the sanctions within the week.