Fox News Anchor Questions Trump Wanting to Let Russia Back Into The G8: ‘Would That Be Rewarding’ Putin?

Fox News anchor John Roberts raised questions about whether President Donald Trump allowing Russia back into the G8 would “be rewarding” Vladimir Putin.

At a press conference in Oval Office on Thursday, Trump has floated the idea of allowing Russia back into the Group of Seven nations and remake it the G8, adding that “it was a mistake to throw them out.

During a Thursday afternoon interview with former National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien on America Reports, the Fox anchor question whether it was wise to reward Putin amid the Ukraine war.

ROBERTS: And so the president also said that there may be a meeting between himself and Putin in Saudi Arabia in the future. He said it’s too early at this point to book something like that. But maybe a little bit of carrot dangling going on in the Oval Office. And we don’t know if perhaps he spoke to Putin about this. And it’s probably likely that he did. But he said that he would like to see Russia come back into the G7, make it the G8 again. I mean, that’s obviously an enticement for Putin, particularly, you know, reflecting on what you said about the economy. But would that be rewarding a guy who’s really known for some bad behavior?

O’BRIEN: Well, look Putin’s a thug. And President Trump has called him a thug, he’s called him his a tough guy and a strong man. But we’ve got to get this war settled. And the stick on the war is American support for Ukraine and increase armament flow. And President Trump has said Ukraine’s get the arms they need. They’re going have to pay for them or put up collateral for them and protect the American taxpayer. And so that’s one of the sticks. The other stick is what Larry Kudlow, your colleague and I have talked about, is putting massive sanctions on Russia. So that’s the stick category on the carrot category. We’ve got a lot to offer the Russians. We can we can pull back all the sanctions we can give to the Russians what they need for their economy to grow again and make Russia great again. I think the president would like to see Russia reenter the family of nations, pull them away from China, you know, end that alliance between China and Russia and bring Russia back into the fold.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.