President Donald Trump continues to praise Russian President Vladimir Putin. This raises the question: is he is the best candidate for the GOP?

Trump praised Putin during his presidency. He had plans for a Trump Tower in Moscow, back before he became president. He also said that Putin was a better president than former President Obama.

His praise may be seen as the least of our concerns because of his past two impeachments. In both the 2016 and 2020 elections, Russia attempted to tip the scales in favor of Trump. Trump also denounced NATO and the EU Multiple times, while attempting to get Russia back into the G7.

While there is much more drama that Trump caused during his presidency, like the January 6 attack on the Capitol, his recent praise towards Putin for his invasion of Ukraine is some of the worst of it yet.

Politicians of all parties have denounced Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, with Trump being one of the few to praise Putin, saying “taking over a country — really a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people — and just walking right in.”

This is as Trump is the front runner for the 2024 GOP presidential candidate. These are some of the reasons he is at least not the best candidate for the GOP nomination, let alone the presidency, I suspect the future will provide us with even more proof.

The attack on Ukraine is Putin’s doing, and is a massive humanitarian crisis causing many families to be broken up by fleeing and fighting.

If the people are willing to die not only to defend their own families and their own country, but to leave knowing they may never come back to defend someone else’s family and country, then this invasion is not something to be praised.

A week after Trump’s praise of Putin, he has since retracted his statements, calling it a “holocaust,”  urging the conflict to stop, as many people are dying. However, he still continues to say that he could have stopped the conflict if he was president and denounced current President Joe Biden’s response to the war.

Even though Trump did retract his earlier praise of Putin, the impact will be long-lasting. Whether intentional or an over assumption of what the war was going to be, his original response of praise will be left in people’s minds.

There are Republicans who are yet to denounce Trump for his praise, and this is creating a rift between them and the Republicans who have condemned Trump as well as Putin. Steve Bannon, the former advisor to Trump, not only did not condemn Trump, but also agreed with him, adding that Biden should be impeached for instigating the war.

We don’t need more drama from our presidents because it causes rifts between people including families. Presidents are also the foremost image of the U.S, so consistent praise of war-mongering world leaders can leave the wrong idea of what the U.S should be.

As citizens of the U.S, we should ensure our next presidential candidates try to bring the country together rather than create rifts between us. Both parties need to step up their game, but as we can see, Trump cannot be the GOP candidate.

Columns reflect the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Editorial Board, The Daily Iowan, or other organizations in which the author may be involved.