Crimea was originally inhabited by a people called the Tatars, who were actually relatives of Turkish people.
In the 40s, as Crimea (like many other parts of the Soviet Union with their own distinct cultures) became increasingly forcibly Russified, Stalin expelled all the Tatars from Crimea.
Eventually, as an attempt to smooth over Stalin's offenses, the Tatars were invited back, although many of them did not return, and control of the Crimean peninsula was transferred from the Russian SSR to the Ukrainian SSR.
In 1991 when Ukrainians voted for independence from Moscow and the Soviet Union, all regions voted for independence, including Crimea. As such, Crimea was officially part of Ukraine.
Because there was still the now Russian Black Sea fleet docked in Crimea, and because there was the unresolved issues of old Soviet nuclear weapons that were still housed in Ukraine, Ukraine, Russia, the United States and several other countries entered into a series of agreements--Ukraine would disgorge itself of all nuclear weapons, Russia would be allowed to keep its naval bases in Crimea, but Crimea itself would remain Ukrainian and Russia had to agree to respect Ukraine's territorial boundaries.
Things went relatively well for the next 20 or so years. There were no major disputes over the Crimean Peninsula, which other than the agreed upon Russian naval bases was firmly considered to be part of Ukraine.
However, in 2014 when the Ukrainian people rose up and overthrew their heavily corrupt and pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, Putin--knowing the Ukrainian government and military were in complete disarray and couldn't possibly respond--seized the moment and immediately moved his troops out of the bases and all over the Crimean peninsula, seizing government institutions. Within several weeks, a laughably sham referendum was held supposedly asking for Russian annexation, which Moscow obviously then accepted.
The world community was outraged by this obviously illegal manipulation by Russia that violated international agreements, sanctions were imposed against Russia, Russia was kicked out of the G8, and most governments never recognized the annexation of Crimea.
There have been several individuals who have attempted to buck the trend--for example, French presidential candidate Marine La Pen recognized the annexation after apparently being paid off by the same Russian propagandists who also sought to interfere with the US elections. But for the most part, the annexation has never been recognized by any major world leaders.
If this is correct, however, Trump seems to be excusing Putin's actions away using some of Putin's own talking points (i.e., the notion that anyone who speaks Russian is Russian--there are many portions of the former Soviet Union where local languages were prohibited and people were only taught Russian). In doing so, he is essentially recognizing Putin's illegal annexation of Crimea.
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