Remember when Donald Trump said Ukraine should get $100 billion in aid?

Republicans are giving Joe Biden a lot of trouble as he seeks to provide Ukriane with tens of billions in financial and military assistance but they may have forgotten that Donald Trump had already proposed what he believed was a good solution to Kyiv's problems. 

Donald Trump said in a recent interview that Ukraine’s European allies should give the country $100 billion in aid to match what the United States has provided to the country. 

The former president has a complicated relationship with the ongoing war in Ukraine. In the beginning, it appeared as if he favored Vladimir Putin, describing him as a “genius.”

Politico was one of many outlets that reported on Trump’s awkward praising of Putin just days after the Russian President invaded Ukraine but that mood eventually tempered. 

In recent months, the former president has complained to anyone who will listen that he could end the conflict in 24 hours if the country would just elect him to a second term. 

“If it’s not solved, I will have it solved in 24 hours with Zelensky and with Putin,” Trump said back in March according to a report by The Hill on the former president’s remarks. 

In June, the Pew Research Center found that a growing share of Republicans said that the United States was providing too much aid to Ukraine with 44% responding as such. 

That might be why the former president grasped onto a new campaign objective during his interview with Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo at the time. Bartiromo asked Trump if he would stop funding the war and the former president had a lot to say on the topic. 

"I'd get the war settled," Trump said, before complaining about Europe’s contributions to Ukraine and adding he would get Ukraine’s allies on the continent to give more money according to a report from Newsweek. 

"Number one I'd tell Europe, 'You're about $100 billion-plus short, you gotta pay,' okay,” Trump said, adding Europe was “smiling all the way to the bank” and “doing very little.”

Trump explained his point of view, noting that the war affects European nations more than it does the United States, noting that they were right there while the U.S. was an ocean away from the conflict. 

Why are we at $150 billion and they're at $20?" Trump questioned. “They should be at the same number as if not more,” the former president said before complaining more. 

Trump wasn't wrong when he said Ukraine’s European allies could be doing more and he wasn't mistaken when complained the geography of the war should serve as an incentive. 

However, the way the former president has gone about voicing his complaints isn’t how international politics should be conducted. But Trump’s anger wasn’t meant for Europe. 

The former president’s comments were most likely part of a larger campaign strategy to appeal to a Republican base that has lost interest in aiding Ukraine against Russia. 

Trump may be a buffoon but he’s proven himself to be a remarkably intelligent politician that can take the pulse of the people he needs to get him back into a position to run for office. 

Couple Trump’s statements of reducing American aid to Ukraine by getting the country’s other allies to help with the bumps in polling he’s received from his various indictments and we just might see the former president nominated to run against Joe Biden in 2024. 

The former president seems to be too consumed by his current legal woes to talk about the new round of funding Biden has proposed for Ukraine, and that might be for the best for Trump since it's really only the hardcore Republican base that has come out strongly against more funding for the Ukrainians.