President Trump said his record as a negotiator is the reason he does not insult world leaders, drawing a direct contrast with former President Joe Biden's handling of Russia before the war in Ukraine.
"Well, look, I have to make deals with people. So I don't go around calling them names," Trump said. "I'm a deal maker. I've always been a very good deal maker. I became very rich because of deals. So I don't go around mocking people."
The comments came as Trump discussed his approach to foreign negotiations, framing restraint toward counterparts as a practical requirement of the job rather than a matter of temperament.
Trump Blames Biden's Rhetoric for the War
Trump pointed to Biden's public posture toward Moscow as a cause of the conflict in Ukraine.
"Part of the reason you have that war in the first place is Biden went around mocking Russia and mocking everybody else and didn't know what he was doing," he said. "That was a war that should have never started."
Biden is a former officeholder; Trump is the sitting president.
Trump also returned to the 2020 election, repeating his claim that the result was illegitimate and arguing the outcome shaped the war's onset.
"If I were president, that election wasn't rigged, and it was rigged, you wouldn't have had a war with Ukraine and with Russia," he said.
Trump on Energy Releases to the Global Market
In the same remarks, Trump turned to energy, describing the release of fuel to the world market as a benefit rather than a direct shipment to the United States.
"So I also feel it's not oil coming to us and it's diesel, which you need. I feel that it's great because it's released to the world. It's not released to us. It's released out to the world," he said.
"And it's going to bring down the price of diesel oil very substantially."
