Trump rewrites Russian history twice in one interview

Donald Trump really outdid himself in his Oval Office interview on Tuesday.

Indulging in a rant widely condemned as antisemitic, claiming Jewish people who vote Democrat are "disloyal", the US president also managed to rewrite Russian history. Twice.

In response to questions about America's efforts in Afghanistan, he restated that he didn't want "to kill 10 million Afghans", before claiming:

The Soviet Union became Russia because of Afghanistan. That's what happened.

Very simple. They became Russia because of Afghanistan.

It's tricky to know where to even begin, so let's start with the first few words.

"The Soviet Union became Russia..." is a bit like saying that if the European project falls apart, the EU will become Germany.

But, deciding to run with this oversimplification, we're then immediately confronted with another - Trump's charge that Afghanistan was the sole reason for the demise of the Soviet Union.

Sure, the war in Afghanistan contributed to the Soviet Union's problems, but they also suffered minor drawbacks like mass economic weakness, resistance to communism across the whole USSR and domestic political turmoil.

The American president then lurched into the 21st century, implying that his predecessor allowed pettiness and ego to influence large geopolitical decisions (shortly before this happened).

Mr Trump claimed Russia was no longer in the G8 because Vladimir Putin had "outsmarted" Barack Obama.

Because Putin outsmarted him, President Obama thought it wasn’t a good thing to have Russia in, so he wanted Russia out.

The people of Ukraine might disagree with this assessment, and many felt that Mr Trump's willingness to side with Russia over a former US president was bizarre, to say the least.

Some merely felt concerned for his wellbeing.

Others were moved to poetry.

It's not the first time Mr Trump's history of the Soviet Union has been shady and he's appeared completely unaware that much of Eastern Europe exists.

Here's the time he decided they all woke up one day and decided to start calling themselves Russia.

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