This isn't the first time that President Trump has said something like this, but he's newly explained in a wide-ranging fresh interview with Axios published Friday his view that the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine likely would likely have been averted if Russia had remained a member of the then-Group of Eight (G8).
"You probably wouldn't have the war with Russia and Ukraine if they did," Trump told the publication, referring to the decision to expel Moscow, making the group the G7.
The forum "would have been much better" had it maintained its original structure, with Russia included. He laid ultimate blame in the fresh remarks on former President Barack Obama.
It was during the Obama administration, in 2014, that Washington pushed allies to expel Russia from the group of leading economies over its takeover of Crimea through a 'popular referendum'.
Trump this week attended G7 Summit held in Evian-les-Bains, France. "They should have kept the G8. You probably wouldn't have the war with Russia and Ukraine if they did, but Obama didn’t want Putin there," Trump said.
"It used to be the G8. (It) would have been much better if they kept that that way," he added. Again, this is not the first time he's articulated this view:
Trump has expressed this position before — in June 2025, he made a similar statement, blaming Obama and former Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau for Russia’s exclusion from the G8.
He's long attacked Biden and the Democrats for setting the conditions for the war to start. But beginning a year ago he also started basically blaming everyone - from Zelensky to Putin to Biden.
"That’s a war that should have never been allowed to start and Biden could have stopped it and Zelensky could have stopped it and Putin should have never started it," Trump said last year. "Everybody is to blame."
Trump added at the time: "If Biden were competent and if Zelensky were competent, and I don’t know that he is, we had a rough session with this guy — he just kept asking for more and more."
As for Putin, he has seemed to welcome this repeat rhetoric from Trump stating that Russia should belong to the G7/G8. Without doubt, Moscow would welcome an invitation back in.
Among Russia's conditions for final peace settlement in Ukraine, a prospect which still seems a long way off, would be the lifting of US and EU sanctions, and readmittance to the global economy.