"When I said in an interview that Putin is 'not going into Ukraine, you can mark it down,' I am saying if I am President. Already in Crimea!" Trump tweeted. Trump tries to clean up on Crimea

Donald Trump attempted to clarify on Monday exactly what he meant in a recent interview in which he declared that Vladimir Putin would not invade Ukraine, despite the Russian strongman already having presided over the 2014 annexation of Crimea, which was recognized as part of Ukraine and is still not recognized by the United States.

“When I said in an interview that Putin is ‘not going into Ukraine, you can mark it down,’ I am saying if I am President. Already in Crimea!” Trump tweeted Monday morning.


In a subsequent tweet, Trump wrote, “So with all of the Obama tough talk on Russia and the Ukraine, they have already taken Crimea and continue to push. That’s what I said!”

The tweets follow an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that aired Sunday in which Trump remarked of Putin, “He’s not going to go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down and you can put it down, you can take it anywhere you want.”

“Well, he’s already there, isn’t he?” Stephanopoulos asked.

Trump responded that Putin is “there in a certain way, but I’m not there yet,” noting that Barack Obama is still president and that “frankly, that whole part of the world is a mess under Obama, with all the strength that you’re talking about and all of the power of NATO and all of this, in the meantime, he’s going where — he takes — takes Crimea, he's sort of — I mean ...”

Appearing on “CBS This Morning” earlier Monday, former CIA Director Michael Hayden denounced Trump’s comments as “devoid of facts and divorced from traditional American, traditionally European policy.”

“I mean, that was the violent change of a European border with the annexation of Crimea, which he says he might be fine with at some point in the future,” said Hayden, who also served as director of the National Security Agency. “I mean, beyond just what’s happening in Ukraine, can you actually live in a Europe in which you can change borders based upon popular sovereignty? How much more violent would the continent become?”

The Republican nominee indicated last week that he could recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea, which the United States has condemned.

“I’m going to take a look at it,” Trump said on ABC. “But, you know, the people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were. And you have to look at that, also.”