(CNN) – Americans rarely pay much attention to international events. Busy life, devoting some time to distant events with unknown protagonists.
The Invasion of Ukraine It has become a rare exception on the part of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose coverage of his assassination in full view has come to anyone with a video screen. But Americans have not yet grasped this confusing reality: the US president, who stepped down 14 months ago, sided with the butcher.
That’s right: the most recent former US president sided with the dictatorship in the struggle to unite the free world against the illegal occupation of a dictator.
And not only that Donald Trump was recently hailed as a “genius” Putin’s attack on Ukraine. From the beginning of his political career, Trump supported Putin and was directly involved in Russia’s quest to subjugate the country.
Over the years, relations between Russia and the eminent real estate executive have been lubricated by money. The development that Trump’s sons boasted of was funding Palm Beach House He sold it to a Russian oligarchy for $ 95 million four years after he bought it for $ 41 million; The Manhattan Project in partnership with a gang-linked Russian immigrant.
Tried to put Trump Tower in Moscow Even when running for president. In 2013, during a beauty pageant there, Trump tweeted, “Will (Putin) become my new best friend?”
Putin annexed Crimea from Ukraine Next year. Protests in Kiev forced the Kremlin’s ally to resign from the presidency. The ousted president fled to Russia on the advice of an American political adviser. That consultant, Paul Manford, later became Trump’s campaign manager in 2016.
Candidate Trump spoke sympathetically of Russia violating the sovereignty of Ukraine. He reflected on the lifting of sanctions to soften relations with Putin.
“The people of Crimea, from what I have heard, prefer to be with Russia than where they are.” Trump told ABC News In July 2016. That is Putin’s justification for the invasion.
President Trump sought to overturn the sentence imposed on Putin Russia proposes to rejoin the G7, The organization of the world’s leading industrial economies. When Barack Obama was president, other members of the US-led coalition refused to expel Russia.
His government implemented some New sanctions against Russia At the urging of National Security officials and Congress. It was Trump who protested.
“In almost every case, sanctions have been imposed on Trump complaining that we have acted too harshly,” his former national security adviser said recently. John Bolton, at Newsmax.
Russia threatened Ukraine during the Trump administration. He strengthened Putin’s hand in many ways.
Trump questioned that America’s decades of commitment to protecting European partners In the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Aides feared he might try to pull out of NATO if he won a second term.
This provoked internal conflict and further enhanced Putin’s goal of undermining the U.S. resolution. In 2020, he said, “Donald Trump was the first president not to try to unite the American people.” James Mattis.
Trump saved Russia from danger. Echoing the Russian campaign, he led his fellow Republicans Slander Ukraine By falsely claiming that Kiev interfered more than Moscow in the 2016 US presidential election.
“This is a fictional story, staged and propagated by the Russian security services,” he said. Fiona HillAt the congressional hearing in 2019, Trump led Russia’s policy on the National Security Council.
Republicans defending Trump are proposing dismissal as Democrats. But it goes to Trump’s compromise with Russia against its vulnerable neighbors.
Congress voted Provides nearly $ 400 million to Ukraine In military aid. Trump delayed exports.
“I want you to do us a favor,” Trump said in his infamous speech to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zhelensky. July 2019 Phone Call.
Zhelensky was in favor of humiliating his presidential rival, Joe Biden, by interrogating him and his son Hunter. Zhelensky never provided.
Things have not changed as Trump or Putin would have liked.
Trump lost the re-election. Biden, who defeated him, is now leading a global effort to stop Putin’s aggression.
Instead of splitting under military and economic pressure, NATO and the EU have joined forces in support of Ukraine. Within the United States, the two generally fighting political parties have joined forces to condemn Russian barbarism.
When Biden criticized the Russian leader in his State of the Union speech last week, Republican senators who voted to release Trump from those charges cheered. The “Putin Accountability Act”, funded by Republicans in Congress, seeks to allow the Russian oligarchy to double Trump’s money at the Palm Beach mansion.
Trump even changed his song. A week after praising Putin’s strategic intelligence, he denounced Russia’s attack on Ukraine as “a massacre.”
Former President Still the leading candidate For GOP appointment in 2024. But the bloodshed in Ukraine continues for a long time, and Putin’s responsibility is greater.
Trump and those around him wanted to end the controversy. His former foreign minister, Mike Pompeo, who heard the famous Trump-Zhelensky call, denounced a reporter who asked about Ukraine a few months later.
“Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?” Pompeo responded to Mary Louis Kelly of National Public Radio.
They may not have cared then. Unfortunately for Trump, they are worried now.
