Throughout his campaign, transition period and presidency, President Donald Trump has long promised that he would attempt to work with Russian President Vladimir Putin. | Getty Trump: Russia ‘ran over’ Obama for eight years

President Donald Trump, himself a frequent target of criticism over his perceived soft stance towards Russia, said Tuesday that it was his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, who truly failed to get tough with the Russian government.

“For eight years Russia ‘ran over’ President Obama, got stronger and stronger, picked-off Crimea and added missiles. Weak! @foxandfriends,” Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning, his second online outburst towards Obama of the morning.


Trump has often maligned Obama and his then-secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, for their ill-fated attempt at a “reset” of relations with Russia, a plan that dissolved as the Kremlin grew more aggressive. Upset by the overthrow of a pro-Moscow government in Ukraine, Russia invaded and annexed the region of Crimea away from Ukraine and has conducted military activity and supported anti-government rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Russian jets have also buzzed U.S. warships in international waters and a top U.S. Navy official said last April that Russia’s submarine activity has increased to levels not seen since the Cold War.

Perhaps most notably, the Russian government was behind a wave of cyberattacks intended to aid Trump’s candidacy during last year’s presidential election. Those attacks targeted the Democratic National Committee and other prominent Democratic individuals, releasing embarrassing and damaging hacked information to the public via WikiLeaks and other, similar sites.

Throughout his campaign, transition period and presidency, Trump has long promised that he would attempt to work with Russian President Vladimir Putin and improve relations between the two countries. Trump has said he might consider officially recognizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea, something most nations have been unwilling to do, and also would be open to cutting a deal to ease sanctions imposed against Russia over the annexation and its military activity in Ukraine.

Individuals with close ties to Trump have also been scrutinized for their ties to the Russian government, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign adviser Carter Page, amongst others.

Flynn was forced to resign last month following revelations that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and others in the Trump administration about conversations he had with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. Sessions announced last week that he will recuse himself from all investigations pertaining to last year’s presidential election after news broke that he had met twice with the Russian ambassador during the presidential campaign, meetings that he did not disclose during his Senate confirmation hearings.