Donald Trump said he would be able to end the war in Ukraine in a single day if re-elected president.
In an interview with Nigel Farage on GB News, the former White House resident said he “got along great” with Russian president Vladimir Putin and criticised Joe Biden’s handling of the war in Ukraine.
He said: “If I were president, I [would] end that war in one day. It’ll take 24 hours. I will get that ended. It would be easy.
“That deal would be easy. A lot of it has to do with the money. That war has to be stopped. It is a disaster.”
Mr Trump is planning a second bid for the presidency in 2024, despite facing a slew of major lawsuits and investigations, including criminal charges over hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential elections and a separate rape case. He denies all the allegations.
Asked by Mr Farage whether he thought he would win the presidential election, Mr Trump gave an uncharacteristically modest answer, saying he had “a very good chance”.
He went on to criticise his successor on Ukraine, claiming Mr Biden had allowed Russia to invade.
He said: “Putin never would have gotten into Ukraine if it weren’t for the incompetence of this [Biden] administration, this current administration.
“Putin was not going in, it was never mentioned and I knew him very well.”
Mr Trump was mocked earlier this year for offering a solution to the conflict that has seen hundreds of thousands killed.
Speaking to Conservative US radio host Glenn Beck, Mr Trump said: “You have to get people in a room. You have to knock heads and you have to get it done.
“That would mean saying things to Putin and saying things to [Ukrainian president] Zelensky that they’re not gonna want to hear and getting them into a room and getting it done.”
Mr Trump spoke to Nigel Farage on the second day of the former president’s two-day trip to Scotland to open a golf course.
Elsewhere in the interview, he said Mr Biden was “very disrespectful” for declining to attend the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday 6 May.
He also repeated a claim that China was responsible for Covid-19 and could “never pay” the full damage international economies and populations had suffered.
