Trump sided with Putin in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine (ANALYSIS)

(CNN) – Americans rarely pay much attention to international events. The busy life leaves little time for distant events with unknown heroes.

The Invasion of Ukraine On the part of Russian President Vladimir Putin has become a rare exception, his massacre coming in full view of coverage by anyone with a video screen. But Americans may not yet understand this troubling fact: the American president, who left office only 14 months ago, has sided with the butcher.

That’s right: In the battle that now unites the free world against outlaw aggression by a despot, the latest former US president has sided with the autocrat.

not only this Donald Trump recently praised “genius”. Putin’s attack on Ukraine. Since beginning his political career, Trump has supported Putin in ways directly related to Russia’s quest to subjugate that country.

For years, relations between Russia and the famous real estate CEO were lubricated with money. There was development funding that Trump’s sons were proud of, which is Palm Beach Palace that he sold it to the Russian oligarch for $95 million four years after buying it for $41 million; The Manhattan Project in partnership with a Russian immigrant linked to the mob.

I tried to put a Trump Tower in Moscow Even while running for president. In 2013, when hosting a beauty pageant there, Trump tweeted, “Will he (Putin) become my best friend?”

Putin seized Crimea from Ukraine Next year. Protests in Kyiv forced a Kremlin ally to resign the presidency. The ousted president, who fled to Russia, had received advice from an American political advisor. This advisor, Paul Manafort, later became Trump’s campaign manager in 2016.

Candidate Trump spoke sympathetically about Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty. He talked about lifting sanctions to ease relations with Putin.

“The people of Crimea, from what I heard, would rather be with Russia than at their place” Trump told ABC News In July 2016. This was Putin’s justification for the invasion.

President Trump sought to repeal his sanction against Putin We propose that Russia join the Group of Seven, an organization of the world’s leading industrial economies. Other members, who partnered with the United States to expel Russia during Barack Obama’s presidency, declined to participate.

His government implemented some New sanctions against Russia At the insistence of national security officials and Congress. Trump himself objected.

“In almost every case, the sanctions were imposed with Trump complaining and saying we were too tough,” his former national security adviser said recently. John Bolton, at Newsmax.

Russia threatened Ukraine during Trump’s term. He has strengthened Putin’s hand in many ways.

Trump asked about America’s decades-old commitment to defending European partners in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. His aides fear he will try to quit NATO if he wins a second term.

It has fomented discord at home, furthering Putin’s goal of undermining American resolve. “Donald Trump is the first president in my life who doesn’t try to unite the American people,” his former Secretary of Defense said in 2020. James Mattis.

Trump has shielded Russia from scorn. Echoing Russian propaganda, he led fellow Republicans Defame Ukraine By falsely suggesting that Kyiv, not Moscow, interfered in the 2016 US presidential election.

“This is a fictional story that was committed and disseminated by the Russian security services themselves,” he said. Fiona Hillwho led Russian policy on Trump’s National Security Council, launched an impeachment inquiry into Congress in 2019.

Republicans protecting Trump present the impeachment process as a Democratic bias. But it goes back to Trump’s alliance with Russia against his weak neighbor.

Congress voted for Provide Ukraine with about 400 million dollars in military aid. Trump last shipment.

“I’d like you to do us a favour,” Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his infamous speech. July 2019 phone call.

Zelensky’s favor was to discredit his presidential rival, Joe Biden, by investigating him and his son Hunter. Zelensky did not give up.

Things didn’t go the way Trump or Putin wanted.

Trump lost his re-election. Biden, who defeated him, is now leading the global effort to stop Putin’s aggression.

Rather than split under military and economic pressure, NATO and the European Union came together to support Ukraine. Within the United States, the two usually rival political parties have united to condemn Russian brutality.

Republican senators, who voted to acquit Trump of impeachment charges, cheered when Biden criticized the Russian leader in his State of the Union address last week. The Congressional Republican-sponsored Putin Accountability Act seeks to punish, among others, the Russian oligarch who more than doubled Trump’s money in that Palm Beach mansion.

Even Trump changed his tune. A week after praising Putin’s strategic acumen, he denounced the Russian attack on Ukraine as a “holocaust”.

previous president Still the main candidate As for the Republican nomination in 2024. But the longer the bloodshed continues in Ukraine, the greater will be Putin’s responsibility.

Trump and those around him wanted the controversy to go away. His former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who overheard Trump and Zelensky’s infamous call, reprimanded a reporter who asked about Ukraine a few months later.

“Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?” Pompeo responded to NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly.

Maybe they didn’t care then. Unfortunately for Trump, they care now.