WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday condemned President Joe Biden's decision to send cluster munitions as part of a new U.S. aid package to Ukraine, warning that it could lead to World War III.
Trump shared his stance in a lengthy statement his campaign issued five days after the Defense Department formally announced the decision and a day after his former vice president, Mike Pence, now a rival for the GOP presidential nomination, expressed support for the move.
"Joe Biden should not be dragging us further toward World War III by sending cluster munitions to Ukraine — he should be trying to END the war and stop the horrific death and destruction being caused by an incompetent administration," Trump said.
Trump repeated the argument made by many critics — including those on the left — saying unexploded cluster munitions "will be killing and maiming innocent Ukrainian men, women, and children for decades to come, long after the war."
Trump then attacked Biden for saying in an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria over the weekend that the U.S. sent the munitions because the U.S. itself is low on ammunition.
"The Ukrainians are running out of ammunition. ... This is a war relating to munitions, and they are running out of that ammunition, and we're low on it," Biden said.
"A great breach of classified information," said Trump, who was indicted last month on 37 federal counts related to more than 100 classified documents recovered from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last year.
The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday about whether Biden shared classified information publicly.
"It certainly means we should not be sending Ukraine our last stockpiles at a time when our own arsenals, according to Crooked Joe Biden, are so perilously diminished," Trump said.
He added that Biden's "humiliating admission that the USA is now out of ammo" is "something our enemies are undoubtedly salivating over."
Trump made the same claim about stockpiles at a 2019 White House news conference with Italy's president. He said at the time that the U.S. had no ammunition when he entered office.
"When I took over, it was a mess," Trump said. "One of our generals came in to see me and he said, 'Sir, we don’t have ammunition.' I said, 'That’s a terrible thing you just said.' He said, 'We don’t have ammunition.' Now we have more ammunition than we’ve ever had."
Trump concluded his statement Tuesday by saying there must be an immediate end to "the bloodshed in Ukraine" and a "return to a focus on America’s vital interests."
He didn't offer any alternative solution he would have acted on if he were president now.
Since Russia's invasion in February 2022, Trump has repeatedly refused to commit to publicly promise support for Ukraine. In May, he deflected numerous times during a CNN town hall when he was asked whether he would supply weapons and equipment to Ukraine as president.
He has also claimed that the war would never have happened under his watch and that he could broker a deal between Russia and Ukraine in 24 hours.
Meanwhile, NBC News asked most of the 2024 GOP presidential campaigns Monday for comment to gauge where other candidates stand on the munitions issue.
Only former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley responded; she said she supports the decision.
