Former US President Donald Trump has all but sealed-up the nomination to become the Republican nominee for the presidency as Americans prepare to go to the polls in November to choose their next commander in chief. However, for those who carefully watch Ukraine, Trump’s ongoing warmness towards Russia raises eyebrows.
On Monday, Trump, who has run a campaign focused on the topic of “revenge,” posted on his social media: “Remember when in Helsinki when a third rate reporter asked me, essentially, who I trusted more, President Putin of Russia, or our ‘intelligence’ low lives.”
He then went on to list some of the intelligence officers who were involved in investigating Trump’s relationship with Russia, before rhetorically asking: “Who would you choose, Putin or these misfits?”
Trump’s admiration for Putin is not new. This past September, Trump said he liked being complimented by Putin “Because that means what I’m saying is right,” before explaining that if he were president he would “get [Putin] into a room. I’d get Zelensky into a room. Then I’d bring them together. And I’d have a deal worked out” per ending the invasion of Ukraine.
Jason Forrest, an American voter from California said that Trump’s statement makes clear that “Trump is again signaling to Putin that his administration will be RUSSIA FIRST in exchange for continued mass promotion of Trump across the Russian disinfo behemoth.”
Russia Leadership Shakeup
Throughout the 2016 campaign that first brought Trump to the White House, the future president mentioned Putin 80 times in what CNN described as Trump “consistently” breaking “from political orthodoxy in his effusive praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
Trump’s praise of Putin continued, within hours after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, 2022, saying during an interview in regards to Putin that “Here’s a guy who’s very savvy… I know him very well.”
Continuing his point that he knows Putin, he said: “Very, very well. By the way, this never would have happened with us. Had I been in office, not even thinkable. This would never have happened. But here’s a guy that says, you know, ‘I’m gonna declare a big portion of Ukraine independent’ – he used the word ‘independent’ – ‘and we’re gonna go out and we’re gonna go in and we’re gonna help keep peace.’ You gotta say that’s pretty savvy.”
Whether Trump made the remarks about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine as bravado to defend his earlier positions, or were his sincerely held beliefs, is unclear. As President, Time reported that when the former American leader was presented with intelligence on foreign affairs that contradicted his personal opinions or public positions, Trump would often become angry.
The same Time article indicated that Trump and his intelligence service often had an antagonistic relationship as: “Trump’s briefs and the briefers themselves, describe futile attempts to keep his attention by using visual aids, confining some briefing points to two or three sentences, and repeating his name and title as frequently as possible.”
However, not all Republicans understand Trump’s logic of touting Putin. Steve Moore, a Republican strategist says he is “not sure what would make Trump speak favorably of Putin. The Russian dictator has an 86 percent unfavorable rating among self-identified 2020 Trump voters and is viewed unfavorably by 74 percent of the independent voters Trump needs to win the general election. Campaigning on Putin doesn't seem to be a winning strategy.”
Though some Republicans are perplexed by Trump’s statements, he has consistently managed a commanding lead over his opponents. The latest Republican polling shows an aggregated average of Trump garnering 70 percent of the vote against second-place Nikki Haley’s 13 percent among Republican voters.
The latest general election polls, should Trump and Biden be their two parties final candidates, are showing that Trump is leading by 3.8 percent nationally. Any victory of over 5 percent is considered a landslide and recent numbers show the Biden-Trump spread is increasing.
With less than 280 days until the future inhabitant of the White House is chosen, there is much uncertainty as to what will become of Washington-Moscow relations.
The views expressed are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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Comments (7)
The majority of us 'sane' Americans will cast our vote in favor of the obvious choice Joe Biden...Trump is an embarrassing pig and only the uneducated conspiracy minded dolts support him...MAGA is a terrorist organization.
Any anti Ukraine , US , or other friendly countries dribble and nonsense is done by russian farm trolls. No matter what the name is. They bleh bleh at every moment. It will get worse as time goes on. Propoganda and lies is their nature.
Remember Jack Griffen is a russian orc troll farmer. He only likes himself. The nanosecond moron.
Well, to read comments from teenagers without education, (or adults), whose vocabular is limited to swearing, is a waste of time....
Who to trust? The FBI who rigged the 2020 election? Trust the officials who spent millions proving Russia stole the 2016 election and found nothing? Suddenly, they're right and Trump is wrong? Sorry, but being attacked doesn't mean you can equate a 100% right and wrong everything to international politics. Politics is not so simple.
@American, Shut up you dumbass! MAGAS are such losers that Trump got his fatness stomped by Obama's Vice President haha and now the traitor wants to get himself humiliated again... it's so much fun to watch MAGA tears.
Trump as well as 50% of the US citizen mainly living in the middle of the US and as Putin and 65% of the Russian people are too primitive to understand democracy and the values of peace. I hope for Nikki Haley to become next president of the US and to clean the political dirt from Russia and Iran.
These ridiculous anti-American essays are why more Americans do not support more aid for Ukraine. These Ukraine anti-American posts are spread in U.S. to prove supporting Ukraine is a worthless cause.
@American Chris, Well there was nothing incriminating in the article that did not actually come from rumps lips themselves so I don't understand you objection.
Just during his term alone rump lavished praise on putin ~80 times. A person would need to be pretty dense to not get whose side rumps MRGA movement is on (RUSSIAs). I say let his own words incriminate him. Here is another recent rump quotes where he actually plagiarized from Putins 2020 speech. It will be interesting to see how you russian trolls on Kyivpost reconcile these with your propertied interest in seeing Ukraine defend itself from russia's invasion:
12/16/23 “It shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy,” Trump quoted Putin saying in the speech. Trump added: “They’re all laughing at us.”.....He also went on in the party speech to defend the now incarcerated insurrectionist that tried to overthrow the USA's legally elected president on Jan 6th, 2020 calling them "hostages".
Putin hates true democracy with fair elections and the rule of laws to protect the people from corruption. In both his actions and words so does Trump. Two peas in a pod.
Meanwhile the USA ranks 28th on the International corruption transparency scale (Denmark has the top ranking), and russia is way down at 141st place.....that is leadership model Trump aspires to lower the USA towards.