Global leaders strongly condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine, with one notable exception.
Former President Donald Trump called Putin’s initial “peacekeeping” invasion into Ukraine “genius” and “savvy.”
Trump praised Putin’s invasion as Ukrainian parents were pinning their children’s blood type to their clothes before sending them to school that day.
Though Trump’s praise of Putin’s barbaric aggression is despicable, it isn’t surprising. Trump trashes everyone from ordinary citizens to the Pope, but bizarrely never Putin.
In 2015, Trump was asked his opinion of Putin given the murders of journalists critical of him. Trump responded, “He’s running his country, and at least he’s a leader.”
In Helsinki, Trump publicly sided with Putin, a former KGB officer, over our FBI’s assessment that Russia interfered in our 2016 presidential election. Trump explained because Putin just said “it’s not Russia.”
Trump hasn’t just given Putin verbal backing, he has helped the dictator in several ways.
For example, in 2016, the Republican Party platform was inexplicably changed to water down support for U.S. assistance to Ukraine. That change was finally traced to Trump aide J.D. Gordon.
Also, the Trump administration alarmed U.S. officials by secretly trying to lift sanctions placed on Russia for election meddling, and invading a part of Ukraine called Crimea.
The G7 is comprised of world leaders with common democratic values. Russia was expelled from it after they annexed Crimea, but Trump fought to get Putin readmitted.
Trump showed little concern about Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine. He was impeached for withholding weapons until Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky found “dirt” on his likely rival Joe Biden.
Last week Zelensky said he is “target number one” on Putin’s kill list and his family is “target number two.”
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe found over 101 contacts between Trump’s 2016 campaign and people associated with the Russian government, but the most treacherous person was Trump’s friend Paul Manafort who managed the campaign.
Manafort had several disturbing ties to Russia and Ukraine. He was broke and in serious debt to a powerful Russian oligarch with ties to Putin.
Mueller’s investigation found Manafort passed campaign data to his associate Konstantin Kilimnik who had active ties to Russian intelligence.
Kilimnik was also pushing a “peace plan” that Manafort admitted was a “backdoor” way for Russia to control eastern Ukraine, and all it needed was a “wink” from Trump.
In 2005, Manafort worked in Ukraine supposedly to help strengthen their democracy and help them become closer to the U.S. and the European Union.
But U.S. diplomats knew better. They said Manafort was giving an “extreme makeover” to presidential hopeful Viktor Yanukovych who had Putin’s backing and whose party was “a haven” for “mobsters and oligarchs.”
In 2010, Yanukovych was elected Ukraine’s President and Manafort was credited for his win. One of the first things Yanukovych did was to bar Ukraine from seeking NATO membership. Putin hates NATO and is strongly opposed to Ukraine joining.
Trump called NATO obsolete causing allies and Trump officials to fear he would withdraw from it in a second term. Putin would have loved that.
NATO is a military alliance formed after the Second World War to keep global peace. Article 5 is the cornerstone of NATO and states that an attack on one member is an attack on all of its members.
Republicans call President Joe Biden “weak” on Ukraine. They ignore how “Putin’s puppet” did the dictator’s bidding and softened Republicans’ opinion of Russia as “friendly” and an “ally” as shown in a 2017 Morning Consult poll.
What could be weaker than allowing the enemy to pull your strings?
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Opinion: How would Donald Trump deal with Russia invading Ukraine?
