By Alexandra Ulmer

ORLANDO (Reuters) – Former President Donald Trump condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Saturday and stated that he is praying for Ukrainians. This marked a shift from the tone he took earlier in the week, when he praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump spoke at CPAC’s conservative gathering in Florida just hours after allies and the United States announced new severe sanctions. These would remove some Russian banks from the major global payment systems, and restrict the central bank of Russia’s ability to support the ruble.

Some Republican Party members were offended by Trump’s description of Putin’s actions against Ukraine earlier this week as “genius and pretty savvy”

Trump addressed a adoring audience at CPAC and expressed sympathy for Ukrainians. He also praised Volodymyr Zelenskiy as the Ukrainian president, calling him brave while he remains in Kyiv.

The Russian aggression on Ukraine has been appalling. For the Ukrainian people, we are sending our prayers. Trump said, “God bless them all.”

Trump used CPAC’s pulpit to criticize Democratic President Joe Biden. He claimed that Putin was using his weakness to attack him.

Trump falsely claimed that Biden won because of fraud, linking the invasion to Trump’s fixation on the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

“As everybody understands, this terrible tragedy would not have happened” he stated. A woman from the packed audience replied, “You’re the president!”

Trump also referenced Russia’s invasions in Georgia by George W. Bush, and Crimea under Barack Obama. He then declared: “I stand alone as the only president 21st century under whose watch Russia didn’t invade another country.”

Trump addressed the praise he had previously given Putin. He said that Putin was smart, because he was outfoxing global leaders. Our leaders are stupid, dumb. He said, “So dumb.”

Biden ridiculed Trump’s comments that Putin was a genius in an interview published earlier Saturday.

Biden declared, “I placed as much faith in Trump saying Putin is a genius that when he called him a steady genius.”

Conservatives repeated their claim that Putin invaded Ukraine after he realized Biden was weak during the CPAC conference, Orlando, Florida. It ended on Sunday. Although Republican politicians generally avoided praising Putin, hot-button domestic topics, such as mask mandates have been more prominent than foreign policy.

J.D. Vance was a Republican candidate for an Ohio U.S. Senate Seat. He said that the American political system had become obsessed with the Ukraine crisis at the expense of more pressing issues closer home like record crossings at Mexico’s border.

Vance, who is a venture capitalist, said, “I am sick of being told we must care more for people 6,000 miles apart than we do about people like my mother, my grandparents and all the children affected by this crisis.”