Trump Takes a Rare Public Swipe at Vladimir Putin: ‘A Person I Think That’s Been Misguided’

President Donald Trump took a rare public swipe at Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Wednesday while taking questions after meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

“I’m picking the beauties today,” Trump said as he called on Gray TV’s Jon Decker – following a jab at CNN’s Kaitlin Collins earlier in the Q&A.

“Mr. President, Secretary General Rutte has described President Putin as an adversary, a threat, an enemy. Do you view him the same way? And, in addition to that, you mentioned General Caine, your chief of staff, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Mm-hmm. General Caine. Yes. He has said that Mr. Putin has territorial ambitions beyond Ukraine. Do you view that in the same way?” Decker asked.

“It’s possible. I mean, it’s possible,’ Trump replied, adding:

I know one thing he’d like to settle, he’d like to get out of this thing. It’s a mess for him. He called the other day. He said, can I help you with Iran? I said, no, you can help me with Russia. Because in the last few weeks, we took care of India and Pakistan, Kosovo, Serbia. I think on Friday we have coming in, the Congo is coming in and Rwanda is coming in. That was a vicious war that went on, a machete war. Heads chopped off all over Africa. They’re coming in. We did two others in addition to that.

Nobody’s ever done anything like this. No, I consider him a person that’s, I think, been misguided. I’m very surprised, actually. I thought we would have had that settled. I’ve settled four of them in the meantime. But he did call up. But he said, you know, he’s close to Iran. He’d like to help us get a settlement. I said, no, no. You help me get a settlement with you, with Russia, and I think we’re going to be doing that too. Yeah, please. Go ahead, please.

Trump later appeared to blame Putin for the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, a departure from his regular rhetoric, which usually blames both Russian and Ukrainian leadership for the conflict that began with Russia’s brutal invasion of its neighbor.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.