In a recent interview, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump asserted that he was responsible for halting the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which was set to connect Russia and Germany through the Baltic Sea. Speaking with conservative journalist Tucker Carlson in Glendale, Arizona, Trump rebuffed claims that he was sympathetic toward Russia, saying, “The Democrats love to say I was a friend of Russia, I worked for Russia, I was a Russian spy,” labeling such accusations “sick.”
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline, seen as a key Russian infrastructure project, was completed in 2021 but was never operational. The project faced criticism from Trump’s administration, which imposed sanctions to block its completion. During the interview, Trump insisted, “I killed it. Nobody would kill it but me. I stopped it. The thing was half-built, dead.” He argued that his administration had taken a firm stance, pressuring Germany to reassess its dependency on Russian energy, adding, “We’re helping and guarding you from Russia, but you are paying Russia billions of dollars a month for oil. How is that working?”
While Trump halted the Nord Stream 2 project during his term, he claimed that his successor, President Joe Biden, allowed it to proceed while terminating the Keystone XL pipeline in the U.S. However, Biden eventually reinstated some restrictions on Nord Stream 2 in 2021. Days before Russia escalated its conflict in Ukraine in early 2022, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suspended the pipeline’s certification. Later that year, the Nord Stream pipelines sustained damage from underwater explosions, which Western media sources attributed to Ukrainian intelligence. Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested the U.S. could have been behind the sabotage, as it would be the primary beneficiary of the pipeline’s suspension.