Former US President, Donald Trump has blamed his 2020 loss for Russia’s war on Ukraine, suggesting that this wouldn’t have happened under his administration.

Speaking to Fox’s Laura Ingraham as the Kremlin’s ‘special military operation’ began, Trump claimed that the so-called ‘Russia hoax’ ruined his good relationships with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi, arguing he kept the two apart.

Ingraham asked Trump about the continuing closeness between Putin and Xi.

‘Well, I had a good relationship with both,’ he said. ‘It was hurt by the Russia hoax. You see what happened with Durham and those reports and other reports including Mueller. It was just a made-up hoax and it really hurt our country but despite the hoax, I had a good relationship and with president XI of China, other than the fact that I was tariff-ing and taxing the hell out of him.’

‘As a young man growing up, I always heard that the worst thing that could happen is drive those two countries together. It really started with Obama and energy. He drove them together because one needed the energy and the other needed the money,’ Trump added. ‘He drove them together and Biden — I kept them apart – and Biden now it’s a great love fest and that’s a very bad thing and I think you can probably add Iran into it too.’

Earlier in the interview, in which Trump spoke over the phone with Ingraham, Trump bemoaned that this was happening at all.

‘This should have never happened. This would not have happened during my administration. In fact, some people are saying why didn’t this take place over the last four years? It didn’t for a very good reason and I’ll explain that to you someday, but it wouldn’t have taken place and it wouldn’t have taken place right now. It’s a sad thing for the world and the country and a lot of people that will be needlessly killed.’

Trump argued he’d have used his good relationship with Putin to stop this from happening.

‘Well, I know him very well. We had many, many times together. I got along with him fantastically despite the fact I shut down Nord Stream-2, nobody would’ve heard of Nord Stream 2 if it weren’t for me. I am the one that shut it down.’

Trump then linked the invasion with the failed pullout from Afghanistan by the Biden administration in 2021.

‘It’s a terrible thing the way it started, I don’t believe he wanted to do this initially,’ Trump said. ‘I think he wanted to do something and negotiate it and had got worse and worse. He saw the weakness and you know, it really started with the weakness in Afghanistan. The way they pulled out of Afghanistan. I really believe that’s where he started thinking he could do this.’

Ingraham then asked Trump what he thought of President Biden’s approach, in which Ingraham said Biden was ‘monitoring the situation’ and then would talk to fellow G7 leaders Thursday.

‘I don’t think he’s monitoring, I think he is probably sleeping right now,’ Trump retorted. ‘This is a terrible thing that should never have happened. I really believe that it was Afghanistan, when he looked at that horrible, weak pullout.’

Trump added that he believes Putin sees this as ‘the weakness and the incompetence and the stupidity of [the Biden] administration.’

‘As an American, I am angry and saddened,’ he continued. ‘It all happened because of a rigged election. That includes inflation and that includes millions of people pouring in on a monthly basis – far more than three million people – and they’re coming from 129 different countries. They are destroying our country.’