Former U.S. President Trump said Tuesday that "China will be the next" to act aggressively on the world stage after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into eastern Ukraine.
During an appearance on "The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show" at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping will take Russia's action against Ukraine as a signal to take back Taiwan.
"China will be next," he said. "Oh, absolutely. Not with me, they would not have."
Trump blamed President Biden for the "disaster" in Ukraine, saying it "never would have happened" under his administration.
"They are waiting until after the Olympics," he said of the Chinese government. "Now the Olympics are over, and you are looking at your stopwatch, are not you? [Xi] wants that."
"It's almost like twin sisters here, because one wants Taiwan, I think, just as much - somebody asked, 'Who wants it more?' I think probably equally strong," he said, comparing Xi to Putin.
"Putin would never have done it, and Xi would not have done it [under my administration]," he added.
Putin had announced Monday that he would recognize two breakaway territories in Ukraine, the Donetsk People's Republic, and the Luhansk People's Republic, and followed that up with a troop surge that the White House has called an "invasion."
"The invasion has begun," a White House official told Fox News. "So our response to the sanctions has begun.
Biden is expected to announce new economic sanctions against Russia after signing an executive order Monday imposing sanctions on Ukraine's separatist regions.
Meanwhile, officials from the U.S. and Europe are preparing for a possible wave of refugees from Ukraine, raising fears of a crisis that could dwarf the Syrian refugee crisis of 2015.
"If Russia invades Ukraine any further, we will see a devastating loss of life and unimaginable suffering. Millions of displaced people will trigger a refugee crisis across Europe," UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the UN Security Council on Monday.
Critics of the Biden administration say its foreign policy mistakes, starting with the withdrawal of the U.S. military from Afghanistan, have given authoritarian leaders a green light to act aggressively around the world.
Fox News' Adam Shaw and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.