Trump would have pulled the US out of NATO, or at the very least not approved of Ukraine joining NATO while he was in office.
UN Chief: Russia's War on Ukraine Risks 'Meltdown of Global Food System' "We must do everything possible to avert a hurricane of hunger," said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2...war-ukraine-risks-meltdown-global-food-system
Maher made an interesting point: In 1991, why not just fold Russia into the NATO mix? They were reasonably vulnerable at that point in time.
I don't think it's a very intelligent question for someone who likes to pretend he knows everything (Maher). Trump did everything he could to empower Putin and criticize/weaken our relationship with NATO in his four years. IMO he was laying the groundwork to leave NATO if reelected, but lets forget the opinions and focus on the facts - I'm sure I'm leaving some out: First Impeachment Despite Congress already appropriating the aid, Trump illegally withheld $400M in military aid (including the Javelin anti-tank systems) to Ukraine in an attempt to extort Ukrainian President Zelenskyy into launching false investigations into Trump’s political rivals for his reelection. As a result he was impeached and the Republican Party acquitted him. Not condemning 2018 Russian attack on Ukraine ships Trump declined to publicly condemn a Russian attack against Ukraine military vessels in late 2018, even though the State Department had prepared a statement for him. This according to Congressional testimony. Poisoning of Sergei Skripal Sergei Skripal was an ex-Russian spy that defected to the UK and was poisoned, along with his daughter. The UK claimed to have ‘overwhelming evidence’ of Russian involvement. Yet on a call with Theresa May, Trump used the time to criticize May about Britain’s contribution to NATO, before disputing the evidence. Helsinki When the US intelligence community determined that Russia hacked the DNC in 2016, Trump went before the world and dismissed the accusations. He actually said, “I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this. I don’t see any reason why it would be.” He goes on to say, “I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.” SolarWinds Hack Trump refused to punish or even critique the SolarWinds hack, in which a hacker group launched an immense cyber attack against US government agencies and corporations. The group behind the attack, Nobelium, is reportedly being directed by the Russian intelligence service. Instead, Trump would later, actually suggest the US work directly with Russia on cybersecurity. Base in Syria Trump had the US military abandon their bases in Syria and Russia promptly captured them. Bounties on American Soldiers Russia was caught paying bounties in Afghanistan for killing American soldiers. Trump did nothing. Crimea After Putin seized Crimea, Obama put sanctions on Russia. Trump promptly got rid of some of those sanctions for his buddy, then declared that Crimea belonged to Russia, recognizing the legitimacy of their invasion. He repeated Kremlin talking points like, “The people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were.” (sound familiar?) Belarus Election vs. Ukraine Election Belarus, which is a puppet for Putin, like he wants Ukraine to be, is run by his puppet dictator Lukashenko, who won a clearly rigged election in 2020 which led to mass protests. What did Trump do? Nothing. Compare that with when a similar thing happened while Obama was president. Putin tried to install a puppet government in Ukraine with a rigged election by installing Yanukovych. We supported the mass protests in Ukraine and they ousted Yanukovych and Ukraine was able to elect a free government. ***And in fact, guess who ran Yanukovych’s campaign in Ukraine… Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. They then of course went on to be Trump’s campaign manager and deputy campaign manager...!!! You can't make this shit up. The mostly false narrative that Trump sanctioned Russia Trump continued some of the policies and sanctions on Russia that began under Obama after Russia annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014. Additional sanctions were created under Trump, however that legislation got passed first in Congress with huge bipartisan support, largely because both parties feared Trump could not be trusted with Russia, given how cozy he had gotten with Putin early on. This is proven in that the same bill restricted Trump’s own ability to ease sanctions in place on Moscow. So when it came time to sign the bill, Trump did so grudgingly and called it “seriously flawed.”, and likely only signed it because the bill passed with a veto-proof majority in both houses. There was also the sanctions that target the Nord Stream 2 under Trump. The sanctions were imposed on any company helping Russia finish the pipeline construction. This was essentially just a publicity stunt since most of the pipeline had already been built - well over 90% - the vast majority of which had been built during Trump’s presidency. While the sanction made a Swiss company exit the project, a Russian company, as you’d expect, just went in and finished the remaining work in late 2020/early 2021. Russian Propaganda / NATO/EU criticism Now Russian state media is using Trump and Fox News soundbites from Tucker Carlson and the like to further propagandize this war to their citizens. What does Trump say about Putin when he illegally recognized the two regions of Ukraine that were being contested and then invades Ukraine? He calls Putin “savvy” and a “genius”. Trump has also said Putin is a “strong leader” and “He’s done a really good job outsmarting our country.” He has dismissed the notion that Putin was a “Killer”, downplaying the idea that Putin resorts to using violence and oppressive tactics to crush his political opponents. Well now you can finally see how wrong that is. He defended Putin’s prior actions by saying, “There are a lot of killers. Do you think our country is so innocent?” On the other hand, Trump has in the past criticized NATO, saying other members don’t spend enough. Also criticized America’s trade relationship with Europe that he alleged favors the EU. So he proposed tariffs on the EU as well as Canada and Mexico, further straining the relationships with all of those longtime allies. He has characterized the EU as a competitor rather than the longtime partner they are. --------------------- Hopefully you get the point by now.
Putin prevented Western companies from snatching up all of the Russian state assets, and instead doled them out to his oligarchs. If Putin would have allowed all of those assets to be bought up by Western companies and created some semblance of a democracy they could very well have joined NATO. After coming to power Putin has proceeded to build a system that isn't even close to compatible with NATO countires. Hungary, Italy, and Turkey all suck politically, but they are not as fucked up as Russia.
Trump said he would withdraw from NATO in a second term, effectively ending NATO. That was a much bigger plum to Putin than Ukraine. Yes, Maher has gotten more conservative. A long time anti vaxxer, he has made common cause with other rich white guys who think they are being persecuted if they can't do everything they want any time they want. Also long time misogynist.
You doubt it? It has happened and is happening. Putin had his people weaponized our social media to help Trump get elected, because Trump was going to play into his hand and he could string him like a marionette and because Clinton was going to bring out the hammer on his ass if she got in. Getting Trump elected divided America and set Americans against each other. Meanwhile, Putin had a president who he could feed his lies too and who would be a public loud speaker for his denial. Trump also was working towards removing America from NATO with his America first BS. Putin was hoping for it. Waiting. He wanted to be able to attack a Europe that was no longer bolstered by the US. He could wait for Ukraine. Either Trump would get reelected and remove the US from NATO or just allow him to take Ukraine without the backlash or if a Democratic president got in, he could then attack Ukraine and use it to further divide America, which he has done as the support for him has become a rallying cry for the right.
Because there has been more than one report from people inside of Trump's cabinet that if Trump would have won a 2nd term he would have withdrawn the US from NATO. The US not in NATO would have drastically reduced the current response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
This is a few years old, but I tend to agree with the premise. Despite the national in-fighting, I still think Trump wanted an America-first solution and, dangerously so, couldn't care less about Putin, Russia, China, North Korea, nor anyone else he deemed might potentially infringe on those aspirations. Those Cheshire cat photo ops with Putin were all a mirage. Just for the record, again, though, I ain't voting for him again. Not a chance. https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/372465-why-does-trump-hate-russia
Of course he didn't care about Putin. He was too stupid to care about Putin. Putin was counting on that. That's why he wanted Trump elected.
If Putin invaded during Trump's first term then Trump would have lost the argument that NATO was no longer necessary. If Trump would have been able to destroy NATO early in his first term I have no doubt that Putin would have invaded Ukraine soon after. But that was all set up for Trump's 2nd term.
Name three world leaders Trump praised more then the leaders of Russia, China and North Korea. He sure seemed to care about getting the approval and bolstering his relationship with those three, no matter how much it damaged the US or our allies.
Because if he could have got Trump another term the US would have pulled out of NATO. Then Ukraine would have not been working on entering NATO. This is pretty much a nightmare scenario for Putin if he fails and gets thrown out of Ukraine then removed from office. Even more so because his Yachts around the word are being confiscated. He will have nowhere to go. Remember how they found Saddam Hussein in a hole in the ground.
Trump really didn't praise Xi Jinping. The leaders of NK and Russia, yes. Also, leaders he supported were the strongarm leaders of Brazil and the Philippines.
