Fox’s Bret Baier Straight-Up Asks Trump ‘Are You Going To Put The Screws To Putin?’

After multiple evasions, Fox News anchor Bret Baier straight-up asked President Donald Trump “Are you going to put the screws to Putin?”

Baier interviewed Trump in the middle of a four-day swing through the Persian Gulf region with stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, which was been dogged by the controversy over his eager acceptance of a $400 million “flying palace” from Qatar to serve as Air Force One.

That controversy came up during the interview, which aired on Friday night’s edition of Fox News Channel’s Special Report,

Elsewhere in that interview, Baier pushed Trump for five solid minutes to talk about pressuring Russian President Vladimir Putin, but Trump changed the subject every time, even with Baier’s most direct and blunt question:

BAIER: Do you think your perception of it has changed? Is Putin now the obstacle to peace, in your mind?

TRUMP: Look, I had a real rough session with Zelenskyy because I didn’t like what he said. And he was not making it easy. And I always said he doesn’t have the cards. And he doesn’t have the cards.

And I’m being honest. He doesn’t have the cards. You’re dealing with a massive army and you’re dealing with somebody that’s brave that had great equipment.

BAIER: But I haven’t seen you get personal. On TRUTH Social, you said, Vladimir, stop.

He hasn’t stopped. And you had once said that maybe you need to look at other things like sanctions or banking.

TRUMP: OK. So…

BAIER: Because maybe they need to be pressured in a different way.

(CROSSTALK)

BAIER: And do you think the — it’s time?

TRUMP: I don’t want to see 5,000 people — outside of the money, which is a big deal, but the money is the money. The money, we can make up. I can make up the money on one trip like this, OK? I mean, think of it.

This trip, I made 12 times the money that we’re talking about. I made that money in a few days. I have always been good with the money.

BAIER: But it’s not about the money. It’s about pressuring Putin, right?

TRUMP: No, no, but I have always been good with money. I make money. I made in four days — I made 12 times what we spent in Ukraine. So the money is the money.

What bothered me, I hated to see the way it was, excuse me, pissed away. I hated to see that checks were sent for $60 billion. Every time Zelenskyy — I think he’s the greatest salesman in the world, far better than me. Zelenskyy, he comes to Washington, he walks out with $100 million every time he came, $100 million, $100 million.

Now, his abilities were shrinking because, the last time, he only got $60 billion. But Congress is very upset about it. They’re saying, where is all this money going?

BAIER: But I’m focused on Putin.

TRUMP: And we send checks. We don’t always send equipment. We send just checks. We send just cash. Where is it?

The Europeans have been very badly hurt by this. They spent a lot of money also. They spent $100 billion. We spent 350. It shouldn’t be that. It should have been the other way around. But they have not been treated…

BAIER: Are you going to put the screws to Putin?

TRUMP: Wait. They have not been treated right by anybody.

This is a war that they’re spending a lot of money on. We have been treated worse than them because we had a very stupid person as a president. And if I can solve that problem — and it’s a bad problem, because I will tell you, Putin, it was the apple of his eye. He never would have done it if I was president, never, ever would have done it, 100 percent.

I think you even — most people, actually even Democrats say that. It wouldn’t have happened. But we inherited a mess, OK? I think it’s going to get solved. But you know that Putin wanted the whole thing.

BAIER: Yes.

TRUMP: He didn’t want a piece. He didn’t want a chunk. He wanted the whole thing. Somebody said, well, why don’t we get out of it in terms of, let’s say, Ukraine?

BAIER: Right.

TRUMP: You know what they get out of it? A large portion of the country.

BAIER: It’s just there’s — Senator Lindsey Graham has 73 co-sponsors on this bill to sanction Russian oil and anybody who buys Russian oil. He’s making the pitch for the bill, saying, why should China get the benefit of cheap oil from Russia as Putin continues the war?

At some point, there has to be leverage on Putin. And I assume that you have talked about that.

TRUMP: Oh, nobody uses leverage better than me. Look what I did to Iran. Look what I did…

BAIER: So it’s changing?

TRUMP: It’s not changing. I always had that. I would — I will use that if I have to. I’d rather not use that. That’s a — by the way, that’s a big deal. I just put it on Venezuela. It’s — secondary sanctions, it’s called.

And I just did it with Venezuela.

BAIER: And you could do it with Iran too.

TRUMP: I just did it with Iran. It’s basically, if you buy oil from Iran, you can’t do business with the United States. And you see the ships just leaving that port. In Venezuela it was amazing, Chinese ships.

BAIER: But why not do it with Russia?

TRUMP: You had to see the — well, I will if I don’t — honestly, I will if we’re not going to make a deal.

We’re going to see whether or not — this is turkey time. This is now we’re talking turkey. And we will see what happens. That would be crushing for Russia, because they’re having a hard time now with the economy. Oil prices are low, you know?

BAIER: It would change the dynamic.

TRUMP: OK, so, Biden, he’s incompetent. He doesn’t want to see the war because he — everything he said was wrong. The way he talked about Putin, the way he said the threats, I mean, give — it’s just wrong.

But here’s what really wrong. He let oil go from $65 to $100 a barrel. Putin was making a fortune. Now I have oil down, so it’s — nobody’s making a fortune anymore. And it’s going to go down further because I’m drill, baby, drill, you know? He closed up everything and then he opened it.

You know, when people, they said, oh, no, he’s using — he closed it up and it drove oil through the roof. And then he said, go back to Trump, go back to Trump. In other words, go back to what I was doing. And he didn’t, but they did to a large extent. He didn’t go all the way.

And I would have been double that by that time. But he didn’t go all the way. And what happened, he forced the prices up, the oil prices up. And that — Putin made a fortune during that period of time.

BAIER: Yes.

Watch above via Fox News Channel’s Special Report.