"No. It’s more likely Trump would have assigned U.S. troops to give aid to Russia, rather than Ukraine. Afterall, Trump was impeached for attempting to strongarm Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He withheld around $400 million in military aid, after asking President Zelenskyy to publicly announce an investigation into his political rival, Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden."
I'm not the worlds biggest Trump fan, but I don't think he would have sent US troops to aid Russia. Instead, he would have sabotaged NATO and Europe's response behind the scenes and prevented NATO and the EU from doing anything meaningful to dissuade Putin. He'd have prevented US intelligence from providing intelligence and aid to Ukraine to mitigate the Russians' elements of surprise, and it's likely Russia would have conducted a false flag operation to justify their invasion, muddying the waters significantly. He'd also sabotage the world from holding Putin accountable after the smoke clears for any war crimes, arguing from his position of Trumpian relativism that "who cares, everyone does it".
There's a multitude of ways that Trump would have made this worse, short of U.S. troops aiding Russia. We are lucky that he's interrupting weddings at Mar-a-Lago these days with "man yelling at clouds" rants than occupying a position to cause active chaos in Europe.
Feb 27, 2022·edited Feb 27, 2022Liked by Susan Bagwell, Chris J. Karr
Excellent piece. You are spot on correct pointing out the racism, antisemitism, Kremlin apologia, having such a cancerous effect on the conservative movement. Not much nuance is needed for that, and your incisive moral clarity condemning the garbage on the right is an absolute tour de force. I hope to see more pieces from you here in the future. They add very nicely to the punditry of David, Steve, and Jay.
The thing I might add here is that while partisans for Trump and left of center Democrats have or may have their preferred narratives, is that Putin has been aspiring to and planning for imperialistic invasions for years now. Bush is famous for having misplaced trust in Putin initially, before later regretting his earlier stance. Obama had nuanced views on Putin, but ultimately underestimated him and his intentions. He was passive and weak, ultimately promising Russia that he’d have more flexibility during his 2nd term. He was wrong in not seeing Russia as a major geo-political foe as Romney did. And in 2014, such passiveness led to Putin annexing Crimea from Ukraine and enabling de facto puppet states in Donbas. Trump of course is well known for his performative and transactional behavior, which included him sucking up to dictators while imposing ham fisted tariffs on our allies. Repeatedly undermining NATO and morally fracturing the good will and unity in this alliance was consequential in a negative way. And autocratic dictators saw him as a useful idiot, including Putin, who saw what Trump was doing. Essentially, they played Trump like a fiddle. On one positive note is that the Nordstream 2 sanctions were enacted by his administration. Biden made a huge mistake lifting these sanctions sometime in 2021. And I think his administration was too passive in dealing the warning signs of Putin’s impending invasion of Ukraine. And these are just a small portion of the mistakes and wrongdoings made over that intervening period of time by US and NATO countries.
So I think this “Trump better!” or “Biden better!” partisan narratives misses the boat and doesn’t help the current predicament. The damage from numerous mistakes and omissive wrongdoings has already been done. The best thing is to do is learn from our mistakes, and pursue corrective policies as we move on and focus on the present and future as we ensure what Putin did will not happen again.
You know, when I read the headline on my cell phone, I knew the post was not from David, Steve or Jay. They adopt a more civil tone and leave some room for discussion. My first guess was Susan. Her discussion usually consists of fact-free rants and name calling to intimidate anyone who dares disagree.
"No. It’s more likely Trump would have assigned U.S. troops to give aid to Russia, rather than Ukraine. Afterall, Trump was impeached for attempting to strongarm Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He withheld around $400 million in military aid, after asking President Zelenskyy to publicly announce an investigation into his political rival, Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden."
I'm not the worlds biggest Trump fan, but I don't think he would have sent US troops to aid Russia. Instead, he would have sabotaged NATO and Europe's response behind the scenes and prevented NATO and the EU from doing anything meaningful to dissuade Putin. He'd have prevented US intelligence from providing intelligence and aid to Ukraine to mitigate the Russians' elements of surprise, and it's likely Russia would have conducted a false flag operation to justify their invasion, muddying the waters significantly. He'd also sabotage the world from holding Putin accountable after the smoke clears for any war crimes, arguing from his position of Trumpian relativism that "who cares, everyone does it".
There's a multitude of ways that Trump would have made this worse, short of U.S. troops aiding Russia. We are lucky that he's interrupting weddings at Mar-a-Lago these days with "man yelling at clouds" rants than occupying a position to cause active chaos in Europe.
Excellent piece. You are spot on correct pointing out the racism, antisemitism, Kremlin apologia, having such a cancerous effect on the conservative movement. Not much nuance is needed for that, and your incisive moral clarity condemning the garbage on the right is an absolute tour de force. I hope to see more pieces from you here in the future. They add very nicely to the punditry of David, Steve, and Jay.
The thing I might add here is that while partisans for Trump and left of center Democrats have or may have their preferred narratives, is that Putin has been aspiring to and planning for imperialistic invasions for years now. Bush is famous for having misplaced trust in Putin initially, before later regretting his earlier stance. Obama had nuanced views on Putin, but ultimately underestimated him and his intentions. He was passive and weak, ultimately promising Russia that he’d have more flexibility during his 2nd term. He was wrong in not seeing Russia as a major geo-political foe as Romney did. And in 2014, such passiveness led to Putin annexing Crimea from Ukraine and enabling de facto puppet states in Donbas. Trump of course is well known for his performative and transactional behavior, which included him sucking up to dictators while imposing ham fisted tariffs on our allies. Repeatedly undermining NATO and morally fracturing the good will and unity in this alliance was consequential in a negative way. And autocratic dictators saw him as a useful idiot, including Putin, who saw what Trump was doing. Essentially, they played Trump like a fiddle. On one positive note is that the Nordstream 2 sanctions were enacted by his administration. Biden made a huge mistake lifting these sanctions sometime in 2021. And I think his administration was too passive in dealing the warning signs of Putin’s impending invasion of Ukraine. And these are just a small portion of the mistakes and wrongdoings made over that intervening period of time by US and NATO countries.
So I think this “Trump better!” or “Biden better!” partisan narratives misses the boat and doesn’t help the current predicament. The damage from numerous mistakes and omissive wrongdoings has already been done. The best thing is to do is learn from our mistakes, and pursue corrective policies as we move on and focus on the present and future as we ensure what Putin did will not happen again.
The majority of Americans polled believe that Putin would not have invaded the Ukraine if 45 was still in charge in America. That is just so obvious.
You know, when I read the headline on my cell phone, I knew the post was not from David, Steve or Jay. They adopt a more civil tone and leave some room for discussion. My first guess was Susan. Her discussion usually consists of fact-free rants and name calling to intimidate anyone who dares disagree.