In a rather off-the-wall Rumble video, Donald Trump Jr. said his father only praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping to “play” them, The Hill reports.

Dear old dad praised the dictators because he “knew that flattering that man [Putin] would get you a lot more than calling him out and embarrassing him on a world stage,” Junior said on the video.

Yeah, well, dad sure continued to embarrass himself on the world stage, with his weird on-again-off-again relationship with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and continual insults towards other world leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others.

The former president has of late, been seen at events calling Putin smart for his strategy that led up to the invasion of Ukraine.

“You call out a leader. You embarrass him, an egomaniacal kind of person, whether it’s Putin, whether it’s Kim Jong Un (or dear old dad) […] You call them out on a world stage and you embarrass them, what do you think is going to happen?” Trump Jr. said.

“Maybe Trump understood that,” he said. “He knew exactly how to play these guys and he played it like a fiddle.”

The Hill notes that Trump Jr. makes these remarks two weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a week after his father condemned the invasion of Ukraine.

The former president said Russia has “to stop killing these people” and called the attacks “a Holocaust.” This marks the only time I’ve ever agreed with Trump. Republicans have, in general, united to stand against Putin, The Hill reports, with former Vice President Mike Pence saying “There is no room in this party for apologists for Putin.”

I find it hilarious that Don Jr. is talking about bullies when most women and people of color think his dad is one of the biggest bullies around. But as it stands right now, Putin is way more than just a bully. He’s willingly killing innocent people, hewing a bloody path to bring Ukraine back to Russia.

I’ll say it again: My heart goes out to the people of Ukraine. I have no more words. I just don’t.

WATCH:

😂 Don Jr claims Trump was using psychological warfare all along and was playing Putin and Kim “like a fiddle”. pic.twitter.com/ff5iPWxjol

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) March 10, 2022