In an interview with the conservative outlet Newsmax, Mr Trump said he feared the damage had already been done.

“When you put him into a corner and you talk the way they’re talking – they’re talking weak – and they’re almost giving him an incentive,” Mr Trump said.

“They’re handling him very badly, in my opinion.”

Beyond the US, there were signs that other leaders were keen to distance themselves from Mr Biden’s remarks – in which he also described the Russian president as a “butcher”.

“I think we must do everything to avoid the situation getting out of hand,” said Emmanuel Macron, the French president.

“I wouldn’t use these kinds of words because I’m still in talks with President Putin.

“What is our collective goal here? We want to stop the war that Russia has launched in Ukraine without going to war and without escalating things.

“This is the objective. If we want to do this, we must not be in the escalation of either words or actions.”

“We must not, we Europeans, give in to any escalation. We Europeans must not forget our geography and our history. We are not at war with the Russian people.”

‘No strategy of regime change’

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, stepped up the administration’s attempts to defuse the crisis on Sunday.

During a visit to Jerusalem on Sunday, he said: “I think the president, the White House, made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else.

“As you know, and as you have heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia – or anywhere else, for that matter.

“In this case, as in any case, it’s up to the people of the country in question.  It’s up to the Russian people.”

But experts, including Richard Haass, president of the US Council on Foreign Relations, accused the president of intensifying the crisis.

He Tweeted: