Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday called Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine “genius.”

In an interview on the conservative radio program "The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show," Trump praised the Russian leader for declaring two regions in eastern Ukraine as independent and ordering troops into those areas to carry out “peacekeeping functions.”

“I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius!” Trump said. “Putin declares a big portion of Ukraine … as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So Putin is now saying it’s independent — a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s going to go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s the strongest peace force. We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re gonna keep peace, all right.”

Trump went on to say Putin is “very savvy” and that Russia would not be showing such aggression toward Ukraine if he were still in office. 

“I knew Putin very well,” Trump said. “I got along with him great. He liked me. I liked him. I mean, you know, he’s a tough cookie, got a lot of the great charm and a lot of pride. 

“I think he sees this opportunity. I knew that he always wanted Ukraine. I used to talk to him about it. I said, ‘You can’t do it. You’re not going to do it.’ But I could see that he wanted it. I used to ask him. We used to talk about it at length.”

Trump also claimed President Joe Biden has had “no response” to Russia’s actions.

On Tuesday, around the same time Trump’s remarks were being aired, Biden announced financial sanctions against two large Russian financial institutions, cutting the country off from some Western financing. The president also said the U.S. will move to sanction “Russian elites” and their family members. 

Those sanctions follow an executive order Biden signed Monday banning “new investment, trade and financing by U.S. persons to, from, or in" the so-called Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic, the two breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine. 

Some congressional Republicans, including Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Josh Hawley of Missouri, have criticized Biden’s sanctions as too little and too late. Biden has warned that more sanctions would be forthcoming if Putin does not withdraw forces from Ukraine.

Trump released a statement Tuesday also arguing Russia would not be moving into Ukraine if he were president. He did not condemn Russia’s actions in the statement or in the radio interview.

The White House brushed off Trump’s comments. 

“We try not to take advice from anyone who praises President Putin and his military strategy," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday. "There's a bit of a different approach.”

Trump has a history of praising or defending Putin, which includes calling the Russian president “a strong leader” and repeating Kremlin talking points in suggesting that Russia had a stronger claim to Crimea than Ukraine did. 

Trump also sided with Putin’s denials over U.S. intelligence assessments that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and he sought to invite Russia to a G7 summit — Russia was removed from the group after it annexed Crimea in 2014.

Meanwhile, Trump promoted false, unsubstantiated claims that Ukraine, not Russia, meddled in the 2016 election. And he temporarily froze U.S. military aid to Ukraine in 2019 while pressuring Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to launch an investigation into Biden, which prompted the first of Trump’s two impeachments.

Some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle blasted Trump for his latest praise of Putin.

“Former President Trump’s adulation of Putin today - including calling him a ‘genius’ - aids our enemies,” Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., wrote on Twitter. “Trump’s interests don’t seem to align with the interests of the United States of America.”

“As bootlicking wannabe-autocrat and twice-impeached thief of classified documents Donald Trump calls Putin’s aggression towards the sovereign democratic nation of Ukraine ‘genius,’ Trump’s authoritarian allies abroad and cult followers at home cheer for invasion,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., tweeted. 

President Joe Biden himself responded to Trump's comments in an interview with political host Brian Tyler Cohen.

"I think I put as much stock in Trump's saying that Putin is a genius, as I do when he called himself a stable genius," Biden said in the interview, which was released Saturday.