Trump says Biden should emulate Putin and send "peacekeeping force" to U.S.-Mexico border

Former President Donald Trump proposed on Tuesday emulating Russian President Vladimir Putin and sending a "peacekeeping force" to the border with Mexico.

In an interview on "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show," Trump said Putin’s recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent on Monday was both “smart” and “pretty savvy” before suggesting that the Biden administration should try a similar strategy along the U.S.’ southern border with Mexico.

"I went in yesterday, and there was a television screen, and I said, 'This is genius,'" he said. "Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine — Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful."

"I said, 'How smart is that?' He's going to go in and be a peacekeeper," Trump added. "That's the strongest peace force. We could use that on our southern border.”

President Biden, however, has qualified Russia’s incursion into eastern Ukraine as “the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine” and announced a new set of sanctions on Tuesday.

“If Russia goes further with this invasion, we stand prepared to go further as with sanctions,” Biden said.

The president is expected to expand sanctions against Russia as soon as Wednesday, targeting additional Russian elites close to Putin as well as the builder of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Bloomberg reported.   

The former president also released a statement arguing that "there was absolutely no reason that the situation currently happening in Ukraine should have happened at all."

"Russia has become very, very rich during the Biden Administration, with oil prices doubling and soon to be tripling and quadrupling," he said. "The weak sanctions are insignificant relative to taking over a country and a massive piece of strategically located land."

Republican lawmakers have also blasted the Biden administration for his handling of situation.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn took to Twitter to say, “Joe Biden has refused to take meaningful action, and his weakness has emboldened Moscow.”