With his praise for Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Trump makes his apologists look foolish. Again
By Max Boot
It is a commonplace on the right that the only reason that Vladimir Putin is invading Ukraine is that President Biden is too weak to deter him. As one right-winger tweeted: Im convinced that Putin would be a lot, LOT more hesitant to invade if Trump was President. Biden simply does not evoke any sense of strength or danger to our enemies.
To believe this is to suffer from temporary amnesia about how Donald Trump actually acted toward Putin while he was in office. Who can forget Trumps kowtow to Putin at Helsinki in 2018? The U.S. president rejected the findings of the United States own intelligence community about the hacking of the 2016 election and said: President Putin says its not Russia. I dont see any reason why it would be. Or who can forget Trumps use of U.S. military aid to extort the government of Ukraine into helping him politically? Or all of Trumps anti-NATO animus? Trump mused about pulling out of the alliance, questioned its Article 5 security guarantees and ordered a withdrawal of 12,000 troops from Germany.
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Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine of Ukraine Putin declares it as independent. Oh, thats wonderful. I said, How smart is that? And hes gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. ... We could use that on our southern border. Thats the strongest peace force Ive ever seen. There were more army tanks than Ive ever seen. Theyre gonna keep peace all right. No, but think of it. Heres a guy whos very savvy. Trump went on to rhapsodize about his relationship with Putin He liked me. I liked him. and to praise him as someone with a lot of charm and a lot of pride who loves his country.
With those few words, Trump has just made a fool of every right-winger who has tried to pretend that he would have been tougher on Putin than Biden is currently being. Trump did claim that this never would have happened with us, but this was merely his usual rhetorical ploy of blaming Russian aggression on former president Barack Obama or on Biden rather than on Putin. Indeed, its hard to think of a single negative word Trump has ever uttered about the Russian tyrant.
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Compare right-wing complacency about Putins invasion of Ukraine with their hysteria about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada ordering the arrests of anti-vaccine mandate protesters who were blocking major thoroughfares. Carlson claims that Canada canceled democracy, while ignoring the actual, existential threat to democracy in Ukraine. This is the authentic voice of Trumps America First movement and it would be solidly in control of a second Trump term in a way it was not during most of his first term. Indeed, if Trump stages a comeback in 2024, he might well be counting on more political aid from Putin of the kind that he received in 2016. So please dont insult our intelligence by suggesting that Trump is the tough-on-Russia candidate or that his volatility would deter Putin. Hes more about Russia First than America First.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/23/trump-praises-putin-ukraine-refuting-claims-tough-on-russia
BigmanPigman
(51,623 posts)Stuart G
(38,439 posts)Response to question everything (Original post)
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