R U OK HUN?I didn’t actually say he was but if my post gave that impression, it was due to over-editing on my part. In more detail; Trump has always supported Putin even before he was President and was aligned with Putin on Ukraine long before he became President too - as was his 2016 campaign manager Paul Manafort and his Lawyer, Rudi Giuliani so my point stands:
After years of being cultivated by Russia, Trump subsequently sent signals to Putin that if Trump were elected, Putin would have an ally in the White House on Ukraine - Russia’s interference in Trump’s efforts to get to power in 2016 became a subject for investigation in the Meuller inquiry.
Background : Twenty years ago, there was no significant reservoir of opposition to Ukrainian independence and democracy. The burgeoning alliance between Russian nationalists and America Firsters was set in motion when Paul Manafort went to work for the pro-Russian Party of Regions in Ukraine in 2004. Manifort, once one of the most powerful Republican lobbyists in Washington, had begun a globetrotting career selling his services to dictators. His Ukrainian client, Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions, was Putin’s main organ for maintaining control of his neighboring country. When Putin ginned up demonstrations in eastern Ukraine as a pretext to hive off chunks of land in 2014, Trump said, “So smart, when you see the riots in a country because they’re hurting the Russians, Okay, we’ll go and take it over… You have to give him a lot of credit.” After winning the nomination, Trump promised to consider recognising Putin’s land seizure because “the people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were.”
- Trump later brought in Manafort to run his 2016 election campaign - in that same campaign, echoing Russian propaganda, he smeared Ukraine by falsely suggesting that Kyiv rather than Moscow had interfered in the 2016 US presidential election by hacking the Democrat emails .
How Trump and Putin Have Been Allies Against Ukraine
In addition to sharing Putin’s loathing of Ukraine, Trump has long supported delegitimizing the now besieged country.nymag.com
- As President - He delayed military aid to Zelenskyy in an attempt to get dirt on the Bidens - which became an article for his first impeachment in 2019
- Out of Office, Trump called Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, ‘savvy’, ‘genius’ and ‘wonderful’
- Trump said he took the Russian president at his word at a summit in Helsinki in 2018 and dismissed U.S. intelligence agencies' conclusions that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election.
The point isTrump has not needed to be President to damage Ukraine and send green lights to Putin about Crimea or his Ukraine invasion - in fact he has done as much damage to Ukraine when he has not been president as when he was - by his historic relations with Russia, his cosying up to Putin, and by his supporters now blocking funding because Trump wants his immigration reforms to go through.
Trump Says He Would Consider Recognizing Crimea As Part Of Russia
The Republican candidate for U.S. president, Donald Trump, has said that, if elected, he would consider recognizing Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.www.rferl.org
As I said in my earlier post, and have said all through this thread a Trump presidency would be disastrous for Ukraine. You are making assumptions about my POVs and gas lighting my post, clearly unaware of my previous contributions on this thread - I think most regular readers of the thread will how I feel about the possibility of Trump being reelected, including the impact it will have on Ukraine
As I have repeatedly said: Funding for Ukraine would likely dry up and Zelenskyy would no doubt be put under pressure by a Trump administration to concede part of Ukraine (Crimea at least ) to Putin.
I refer you to the first sentence of my reply - FYI, I have already blamed Trump for an enormous amount on this thread. Pages of blame - So don’t need to be told that thanks. .
However, Trump’s influence on American politics in relation to Russia and Ukraine go back to long before he was President and before Putin actually invaded Ukraine in 2022 - that was the point I meant to elucidate but got lost in my attempts to edit my earlier response into a shorter post - so now everyone has got the long version which most people won’t now bother to read anyway.
If you think Trump had no connection to Putin/Russia/Ukraine before he became President and is completely un-blameworthy in giving Putin the impression Trump would support his annexation of Crimea (and any subsequent invasion of Ukraine) you may find the Guardian article below is a really good read. it will probably astonish you just how much the 2016 Presidential candidate was already entangled up to his neck in Russian politics through Manafort, Rudi Guliani and his business dealings which go back to the 80s, including evidence of the Trump Organisation being alleged to have money laundering operations with Russian oligarchs through the Deutsche Bank.
It is hardly surprising Putin wanted Trump not Clinton to win the White House and interfered in the 2016 Presidential Election to that end…It also suggests to me that Putin miscalculated and thought Trump would win in 2020 too but by that time plans to invade Ukraine were well under way: “Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized "influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden's candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process and exacerbating socio-political divisions in the U.S," says the report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.”
By that time, Trump lost the 2020 election, Putin’s Ukraine invasion had already been years in the planning and throughout the Trump Presidency, he was given the time he needed to develop his invasion plans.
This is a long read but highlights that Russia had been cultivating Trump for years before he was elected and continued to influence American elections to get him into the White House
How Trump walked into Putin’s web
The long read: The inside story of how a former British spy was hired to investigate Russia’s influence on Trump – and uncovered explosive evidence that Moscow had been cultivating Trump for yearswww.theguardian.com
TDLR?
Was Trump President when Putin invaded Ukraine? - No. However, Trump can certainly be blamed for giving Putin the impression America would be soft on Crimea, that Trump had both Rudi Guliani and Paul Manafort as close cohorts, both with shady and insurrectionist involvement in Ukraine prior to Trump’s Presidency. Trump can certainly be blamed for giving Putin the impression that he would have an ally on Ukraine in the White House if Trump won the 2016 Election and the 2020 Election -( Russian interference in both these elections is evidenced by subsequent inquiries) - Trump can also be blamed for his role on the current influences in the Republican Party that is now blocking aid to Ukraine in Congress.
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