Former President Donald Trump refused to answer several questions on Monday related to Taiwan and Ukraine, arguing that doing so would hurt him in “negotiations” if he were to be elected president in 2024. 

The usually outspoken Trump, 77, was coy when asked by Fox News host Bret Baier if Taiwan should be independent and if the US should respond militarily to a Chinese invasion of the island. 

“So, if I tell you an answer, it’s going to hurt me in negotiations, on the assumption that I win,” Trump told Baier when asked about whether Taiwan should break away from the People’s Republic of China.

“But I have a very good relationship with President Xi,” the former president offered. 

When asked by Baier if he would “go to war to defend Taiwan” from a Chinese invasion, Trump again would not give a definitive answer.   

“I don’t want to say that, because that hurts me in negotiations with regard to President Xi,” Trump said. 

“Now, he knows what I would do. And, by the way, for four years, they didn’t invade Taiwan, and they never even talked about it. You will find very few discussions about it,” he added. 

Trump again cited potential future negotiations when he refused to say whether Ukraine giving up the Crimean Peninsula to Russia would be part of his plan to stop Russian President Vladmir Putin’s continuing invasion of the country.  

“Is that part of the deal? Is – should Putin get Crimea?” Baier asked the 2024 GOP presidential primary front-runner. 

“Well, right – right now, I don’t talk about those deals, because it really would impede a negotiation,” Trump responded.

The former commander in chief and author of “The Art of the Deal” added that he would end the war in 24 hours by telling Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “something.”

“I would have a deal done in 24 hours from the time we started, and I would tell Zelensky something, and I would tell Putin something, and I’d get him into a room, and I’d tell him again and again. I would have a deal done very quickly. And you know what? The death would stop and the destruction would stop,” Trump argued.

The former president also claimed that before leaving the White House he “thought” Putin was considering invading Ukraine and talked him out of it. 

“Look, I talked to him. I said: ‘If you do it, there’s going to be hell to pay. It’s going to be a catastrophe. Don’t do it.’ He said: ‘No, no, no, you won’t do that.’”

 “I told him I was going to do something. He said: ‘No, no, no, you will not do that.’ I said: ‘I will, Vladimir. I will do it. I’m going to do it.’” 

“And he didn’t believe me at all, except for maybe 10%. And 10% is all you needed,” Trump added. 

The alleged conversation is strikingly similar to one Trump claims to have had with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which he told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson about in April. 

“I told [Xi] you can’t go into Taiwan. You can’t. You can’t do it. I won’t tell you exactly what I said, but it was something that probably a lot of people wouldn’t like if they heard it, but it was very tough: ‘Don’t go into Taiwan. If you do, we’re going to have problems,’” Trump said. 

“And he said to me when I said we’re gonna do something if he goes in, ‘No, no, no, you wouldn’t do it.’ I’ll do that, I swear I’ll do that. And he didn’t believe me, but he believed me 10%.”