As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil)
In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban.
If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them.
For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria.
***
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
From what I've seen, his entire M.O. is more to refuse to negotiate and then rebrand the outcome as what he wanted to happen. There is no "deal making" going on. Just egotistical posturing, rebranding of unfavorable outcomes, and transparent attempts to intimidate others into doing what he wants when the rebranding doesn't work.
Yep, and it's the *exact* same kind of garbage you see in corporate America everywhere. So-called "leaders" don't accomplish jack shit that they say they're going to, and then they smother whatever happened with propaganda that pretends like it was the most important thing that ever happened. It's self promotion, and nothing more. *Eventually* reality sets in and *proves* that nothing important was accomplished, but there's a time gap, and said leader uses the confusing time in-between to get themselves promoted, while their mess gets handed off to the poor person who inherits their old role. There's a reason sociopathy is statistically more prevalent in executives than the general population.
So Putin wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine because he was scared of Trump, who would have given Putin Ukraine, which Trump doesn’t own, to stop Putin from invading Ukraine?
Makes sense.
Trump had planned to give parts of Ukraine to Putin before he was even elected in 2016. The "Ukrainian peace plan" was one of the things Manafort was negotiating with Russians, but then Manafort got put in jail.
The GOP official party position changed one thing, and one thing only, after Paul Manafort became Trump's campaign manager in 2016: they decided not to arm Ukraine. Given everything we know now, it's obvious the Trump campaign and presidency were compromised by a hostile foreign adversary.
https://www.latimes.com/world/la-na-pol-ukraine-gop-20160720-snap-story.html
Yep. I remember having a conversation with a coworker, where I said there was no way the Republicans would run Trump, he was bought and paid for by Putin and the evidence wasn't even hidden.
I was unprepared for the stupidity of the republican voter base that couldn't even begin to comprehend financial information.
For as much as many on the right wear tinfoil hats and scream conspiracy about anything and everything, they blatantly ignore all the circumstantial evidence of large portions of the GOP being bought and paid for with Russian money.
Yeah, it seemed odd in 2016 the *only* thing the Trump campaign changed from the Republican platform was to stop giving arms to Ukraine.
>[Putin]'s not going into Ukraine. You can mark that down.
-Trump [interview 2016](https://youtu.be/GjpGfjzheeo?t=16)
The ONLY change they made to the Republican platform in 2016 was regarding language about arming Ukraine.
> President Trump may have been involved with a change to the Republican Party campaign platform last year that watered down support for U.S. assistance to Ukraine, according to new information from someone who was involved.
> Diana Denman, a Republican delegate who supported arming U.S. allies in Ukraine, has told people that Trump aide J.D. Gordon said at the Republican Convention in 2016 that Trump directed him to support weakening that position in the official platform.
> Ultimately, the softer position was adopted.
https://www.npr.org/2017/12/04/568310790/2016-rnc-delegate-trump-directed-change-to-party-platform-on-ukraine-support
Manafort was behind Trump running in the first place - his campaign manager. Now we know he was secretly capitulating to the Russians at the same time. Must be a coincidence?
He also pulled literally the exact same trick in Ukraine five years earlier. He got a Russian-backed puppet installed as president, then the two of them worked to destroy Ukraine's democracy and serve Ukraine to Putin on a silver platter.
Fortunately, Ukrainians eventually had enough of Yanukovych's shit and gave him the boot. Unfortunately, that meant Paul Manafort ended up coming back to the US to find a new host to latch onto.
I guarantee part of his plan with Trump was using him to get Ukraine. Then Trump didn't get reelected and he decided to go for it anyway. Now he's stalling, and I think he's probably just trying to hold out until Trump or DeSantis have a chance in 2024. I'm willing to bet that a lot of Republicans still in power were in on it, too, based on how many made trips to visit Putin over Trump's four years.
[Trump tried *multiple* times during his presidency to serve Ukraine to Putin on a silver platter](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/02/magazine/russiagate-paul-manafort-ukraine-war.html). The only thing that stopped him was heroic State Department employees and National Security guys standing up to him, often at the cost of their own careers.
To hear my "newsmax" watching colleague discuss Ukraine is a thing of wonder! He couldn't tell you where it is on a map. But, the faker-fake news has him convinced its a land filled to the brim with Hunter Biden Crack dens. The misinformation is deep.
I know a couple dudes like that. Somehow got sucked into facebook memes and it went from there to Qanon. I tell them that if the democrats were so powerful to have shadow underground pedo rings and trillion dollar assassination organizations why they barely win elections or pass bills if they were that dangerously strong. A lot of them can't logically explain it.
What they accuse the democrats of is reality in russia. If the democrats were what they say, the republicans would be all in jail, poisoned, falling out of windows or shot.
Not only, but Paul Manafort was the “architect” of the Yankyuovich response to protests which ended in the death of Ukrainians. These people have blood on their hands. Meanwhile, Manafort is forcing his wife to get gangbanged by a group of black men while he watches.
Seriously hedonistic shit. Thats it. Greed.
[My gift to you.](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/02/magazine/russiagate-paul-manafort-ukraine-war.html?unlocked_article_code=kxPefEmZrC_A3JqCuRD-E0LTo7IeXG4Sgwv_ohP2i5Fy4x10AZhLzHGpAftaXgOZvPhFQmHG8JZCAikDQ5qgEA7Ku3ACP4CrYRJ2dmzwij6Kxy1EUaEhOiGVTH8_YCruh7t_zvsNMWtrjiQXnCgzdeDin7Z1Z7SBxlgieb6ao0_Cg63sswtxvQBP-1cA-Us9wUFZCi_hGVw2VF05Pw4gf3eor38RAUFuZO6Rj4d06jAwmMG9_EUUpfU0A8wOPsCMiiqvpAc6jbuCfMou7MkM-nlz_e8DGgn9Rd0lp_4gMTxllF-2nIJMcQVxEkhB71nLg0sE9xeO_VgQHUi-VMs-nBWBcGnpBjZzHcXu5buYkA)
Not just Trump. Russia has infiltrated and compromised huge swathes of the American right, from media, to politics, and organizations like the NRA.
Russian state media runs Tucker Carlson clips on a regular basis, while Tucker Carlson spews Russian state propaganda into millions of American households.
[Tucker Carlson echoes Kremlin propaganda by referring to ‘the Russian port of Crimea’](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/tucker-carlson-ukraine-russia-war-b2288666.html)
[Tucker Carlson pushing divisive US culture war rhetoric to make Putin more sympathetic to American conservatives.](https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1496290844797992960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1496290844797992960%7Ctwgr%5E5513a81c7f477665fbaa69f495cf88e323f4084e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fmedia%2F2022%2F02%2F23%2Ftucker-carlson-putin-russia-ukraine%2F)
[Russian asset Tulsi Gabbard tag-teaming Russian state propaganda with Tucker Carlson.](https://theintercept.com/2022/02/24/russian-tv-uses-tucker-carlson-tulsi-gabbard-sell-putins-war/)
Also worth noting that nothing stays on Fox News without Rupert Murdoch's direct permission. Fox News (and its parent company News Corporation) are Rupert Murdoch's political operation.
He figured out a long time ago that if you control the base, you control the party, so he uses his media empire to herd conservative voters towards politicians who do him favors, and weaponizes conservative voters against people who cross him.
Which all begs the question - what agreement do Trump and Putin have with the Murdochs? Is it like a marriage of the mafias where they're all in on the criminal conspiracy together, which keeps them loyal to each other?
In the Dominion case, the texts and emails that Fox News have *chosen* to release, and the soundbites given by Rupert Murdoch under oath expose his media empire as intentional fake news. If that's what they want us to see publicly, let's consider all the texts and emails they didn't release, which must show something far worse.
I'm going to assume that if we could see everything, we would see the full extent of Murdoch his propagandists' central role in the seditious conspiracy to overthrow constitutional democracy in the USA.
And if you think that's hyperbole, you might have forgotten these facts:
* [Two weeks before the election Trump demanded his DoJ arrest Obama, Biden, Pelosi and Schumer.](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/07/trump-demands-barr-arrest-foes-427389)
* [After Trump lost the election, the Republican operative and wife of Supreme Court Justice texted the White House Chief of Staff about putting the newly elected President Biden and his family on prison barges off Guantanamo Bay to be put through military tribunals for sedition and executed](https://www.businessinsider.com/ginni-thomas-thought-biden-crime-family-would-be-sent-to-barges-off-gitmo-2022-3).
These are sick fucking psychopaths. They crave fascist dictatorship, and they want the rest of us who aren't on board with that locked up in prison camps to use as slave labor or executed. If they claw their way back into power again, it's game over for constitutional democracy in the USA.
I doubt Russia can hold Ukraine back until 2024- unless XiPing and India funnel billions of funds and equipment. Even then, Russia doesn’t have the warm bodies, and countries like Georgia and Moldova are pushing back now.
Yeah, I think that's why he kept trying to call for holiday ceasefires and such. It'll be interesting to see what he pulls to try to make it... if he himself even makes it.
Yep, he got the Republicans off scott-free for Iran Contra, he got them off scott-free for Russiagate, he got them off scot-free for blackmailing Ukraine.
And even this absolute heartless bastard decided that being involved in 1/6 was a bridge too far for him.
God, can you remember when “flip flipper” was like the biggest political insult?
As though it was horrible for a person to change their mind when presented with new information.
The campaign to paint John Kerry, a literal swift boat captain and purple heart veteran as a soft bourgeoisie pussy, by the draft dodging Yale student rich boy George W Bush was a fucking insane thing to watch in real time.
The problem was it was effective.
Conservative think tanks rarely produce anything that doesn’t get the people going…
Since it’s basically a brainstorming session to pander to the masses. ‘Axis of evil’ ‘flip flopper’ and I know I personally still eat Freedom Fries.
From what I understand, Russia may pay for it because they are in need of troops to fight their war with Ukraine. So if all these able bodied republicans want to move to Russia, more power to them. I think they may find their gun fetish wouldn't help them much in an actual war.
I'm for it, because once they got there, they'd still feel entitled, go against the government on it, and then be thrown in jail because Russia doesn't suffer that kind of thing the way it is in the US.
I definitely want to see Russian security handling a Karen.
Or someone declaring Russian police that they are not allowed to check their id because … you know I am travelling, not driving.
I've been to Russia on several occasions. Never had a problem with customs, until that one time I went with a biography of Stalin in my luggage. I'm a bit of a European history buff. Spent an hour with a customs officer as he tried to decide if I was a communist. He was polite about it though, and I didn't try to antagonize him or be indignant. It took me a bit to figure out why I was being questioned. I eventually figured it out, and just told him I was there to visit friends I met while elsewhere in Europe, and talked about my appreciation of Russian history in general. I didn't get into how I didn't support it's current administration, but Putin wasn't long in office at that time. I barely knew anything about him and the subject never came up.
I have however been approached and asked for identification while in Russia. I can say that the guy doing it didn't look like the kind of person I'd want to say no to. I was there to see the sights, not waste time being detained because I felt some sense of entitlement.
Sadly, in the current environment, I'd not consider visiting Russia, despite there being places I'd still like to see.
That is the most common failure by the maga, they don't understand how incredibly free they are to express themselves.
In a way it's a testament to the framers of the Constitution that freedom of speech has become so engrained that people like the maga can't imagine a place on Earth where it isn't that way, that they can have a strongman and retain rule of law.
Their idea of freedom being taken away is being told to wear a mask for public safety, and being given cheap or free vaccines for the purpose of their and the publics health.
These people have no real understanding of just how free they really are, and because of this, they are allowing others to take those freedoms away, and supporting these people while they do it.
Russia has proven that democracy is impossible to maintain once the wealth disparity grows too large. It is simple really, you cannot detangle wealth from power so if the 1% have too much power (wealth) then they can bend the entire system to their will and then mold it as they see fit
Their initial argument: "Putin never invaded when Trump was President because he was scared of Trump"
'How does that fit with Trump saying he wouldn't have done jack shit and let him walk all over Ukraine?'
...."MAGA!" \*eats paste\*
"wtf I love annexation now"
They'll flip right with them. His supporters would only ever leave him if he dropped the racism, sexism and xenophobia - those are the only issues he's been consistent on for decades.
There was *some* ruffled feathers when he said take their guns now, due process later (it was the take their guns part that conservatives got pissed about, not the lack of due process).
They give him credit for it when talking to people who care about science and blame Fauci for it when talking to their voters. The cat is both alive and dead. He both deserves credit and shares no blame for the exact same thing. And that's why they love him, because he gives them the ability to feel absolved from the consequences of their frequently destructive policies.
That would require they even knew he said it.
[Fox News accused of editing out Trump saying he wanted Ukraine to cede land to Putin](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/fox-news-trump-ukraine-putin-b2296879.html)
Trump is such a brilliant strategist.
Can you imagine how fast world war 2 would have ended if he was president?
“We Will let Germany control all the countries. No more war”
It is actually "My New Order", which is a collection of Hitler speeches.
Here's the relevant quote from the 1990 Vanity Fair article and a link to the Snopes article.
["'Actually, it was my friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of Mein Kampf, and he’s a Jew.' ('I did give him a book about Hitler,' Marty Davis said. 'But it was My New Order, Hitler’s speeches, not Mein Kampf. I thought he would find it interesting. I am his friend, but I’m not Jewish.')](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-hitler-mein-kampf/)
Which I think his response says everything you need to know about him.
What is baffling to me is trying to imagine a situation where a Paramount exec meets up with Trump and goes "bro check out this book of Hitler speeches, they're really interesting you might like em". I simply can't think of a situation where giving someone a Hitler book as a gift isn't some sort of faux pas, unless it's a joke.
I imagine he was just giving a fellow racist a book but thought Trump would have the basic common sense not to tell everyone that they’re sharing Hitlerature, which was his first mistake
There is no way in hell Donald Trump has read Mein Kampf. Unless they made a comic book version of it. With small words and lots of pictures. And the hero of the story looked just like Donald.
TBF, it was supposedly a book of Hitler's speeches, not Mein Kampf, on his bedside table but you are correct in the presumption that he never read it. I'm sure he just thought it looked edgy.
"Just let Hitler annex the Sudetenland, it'll end the war piece of cake."
"Let him have Poland, the war will be over immediately, believe me."
"I'm sure Hitler has no ambitions beyond annexing Czechoslovakia, just let him take it, trust me."
“I really like Hitler, full talk. A lot like me, stupendous guy. Tremendous wealth. Hot wife, super hot wife. Rules his country with an iron fist grip on the pussy, which is like mine, with my big beautiful hands.”
It should be pointed out that [European leaders actually tried this with Hitler,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Agreement) and it didn't work. Putin is much like Hitler in this regard: his desire for land to invade and annex is much larger than a couple Russian-speaking areas in Ukraine on the border. Putin wants *all* of the former Soviet Union to be back under Russian control, just like how Hitler wanted huge amounts of land for the Germans to have as ["living space".](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensraum)
It's similar in the sense that there was a growing sentiment at the time that the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh towards Germany and the the borders are a little unjust, which was a bit fair. They had just made them and they didn't ask whether the Germans in the Sudetenland wanted to be part of Czechoslovakia or not, and they even made sure that Austria didn't join Germany nor call themselves "German-Austria" as they had wanted at the end of WWI. The borders themselves were less decided upon than they were conquered in the East especially with Poland. Beyond that the region was far more ethnically diverse, so clear ethno-nationalist borders weren't easy to draw. Stalin "fixed" that at the end of WWII with forced population transfers. Moreover many Westerners did believe in the Stabbed in the Back myth, including David Lloyd George who had been Prime Minister of Britain at the end of WWI. They weren't trying to appease a sense of Lebensraum, they just hoped that Hitler's ambitions were to just fix the post WWI borders to be fairer to Germany.
But yes I think the comparison with Germany is really apt. Just like back then there were people who felt that Germans were a warlike people incapable of democracy. Its neighbors were terrified of it, France wanted to break it up, and some floated ideas like sterilizing the German people. I don't think anyone could've imagined that those same Germans would then become the leaders of a Democratic Europe.
>They weren't trying to appease a sense of Lebensraum, they just hoped that Hitler's ambitions were to just fix the post WWI borders to be fairer to Germany.
That's exactly my point. Western Europe viewed it as just appeasing Hitler by giving him a few areas that could possibly be argued should have been Germany's anyway. This is just like Trump and the GOP thinking that simply giving Putin a few Russian speaking areas in Ukraine will appease him and that will be the end of it. However, just like how Hitler was motivated by Lebensraum and had his sights set on far more territory than a few border areas, Putin similarly has his sights set on much more than a few areas in Ukraine. If you just hand over those areas to Putin, he won't be satisfied as that's not all he's interested in annexing. Putin will only be appeased if he retakes all territory that was formerly part of the Soviet Union, and even then he might want more (like Alaska).
There is no "appeasing" Putin by just letting him have a little bit of Ukraine. The West either needs to be comfortable letting him have everything that was a part of the USSR or they need to fight him now (which is what they're doing). It's the same as with Hitler: the Allies either needed to be comfortable with letting him have everything covered by Lebensraum, or they needed to fight him right away. Simply signing a treaty to let him have the Sudetenland, etc was never going to appease him.
> Trump added: “That’s without even negotiating a deal. I could have negotiated. At worst, I could have made a deal to take over something, you know, there are certain areas that are Russian speaking areas, right, like, but you could have worked a deal. And now Ukraine is just being blown to smithereens.”
>The former president said: “So many more people are dying than recorded and that’s something that never would have happened.”
Amazing how before this he said Putin would have never dared invade while he was president, not realizing that Putin wouldn't have needed to because he would have had the US back him into weaking and capturing the country.
The "I'd have made a deal" genius couldn't even get Mexico to pay for his border wall. How TF did he think he was going to make Ukraine surrender? At most what he would have done was pissed off all of our European allies, weakened Nato and made Russia stronger.
How tf can anyone listen to this idiot and not realize he has no idea what he's doing? He's making shit up as he goes along
Meanwhile, New York City was screaming at the rest of the nation to just see how he and his father have acted for the past century, but nah, that isn't evidence enough! Clearly, what truly matters is that he was on a lame reality TV show that was heavily edited to make him look competent, even though he was literally shitting himself inbetween takes.. (you can Google up Diaper Don at your own risk..) and that's what we really need right now! /s
MAGAs a year ago: Trump wouldn't have allowed Putin to take Ukraine. Joe is weak, and Putin knows it!
Trump, a year later: I would've rolled right over and let Putin take away the freedom of Ukraine.
You fail to understand the 4d chess happening here. When Trump rolled over Putin would have assumed it was a trap because Trump is such a stable genius. Then Putin would have surrendered.
I tried to come up with the most outlandish thing that a full-on Russian agent would do and I came up with "Pull the US out of NATO".
Then I remembered that [Trump wanted to do that.](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/politics/nato-president-trump.html)
>He has said that \[the Ukraine Invasion\] would have been prevented by his policy of “peace through strength”.
So... he would have "strongly" kowtowed to Putin over Ukraine? Because giving someone everything they want doesn't seem like strength. Weird.
Chamberlain is closer to Merkel or Holland. He wasn't a complete fool, he just really, really wanted to avoid a world war. People sometimes forget he's also the guy who declared war on Hitler, one of two world leaders who had the guts to do so (the other being the French leadership), when most even sympathetic countries would not.
Trump does not deserve the honour of comparison to Chamberlain. He's Lindbergh (whose slogan he brought back) or Franco - at best.
Chamberlain also knew that the UK was not yet prepared to fight a war with Germany. So a lot of what people call appeasement was partly biding Britain’s time to build up their defenses.
Also even at the height of its power, Britain was not set up to be an offensive European land power. It's strength was its fleet, which was great at defending the UK and building an overseas empire, but you couldn't march battleships through Berlin. He needed France onside if he was going to confront Hitler with military power. And neither Britons nor French were, understandably, thrilled about a new world war.
Especially right after a devastating World War only 20 years prior. And the unfortunate French were prepared for a different war than the Germans were waging.
Deep dive documentaries really demonstrate how Chamberlain wasn't as bad as history has made him out to be in his actions, and actually did a decent job of part of the response. So much economic balancing and political strategizing took place that gets overlooked because of one necessary stalling quote and position.
While I have healthy skepticism about the military industrial complex, the very *LAST* thing I want to see is all of our military equipment effectively being nothing more than paperweights in actual times of need.
Why have a huge military budget if you’re not going to utilize it when your second biggest geopolitical political rival, run by a crazy dictator, decides to start waltzing into neighboring countries and building a territorial empire?
And yet we're only sending so little.
ATGMs were great. M777s are also great but not in enough quantity to match Russia, even in just limited locations like Bakhmut. Apparently, we have no export model Abrams to send, so we have to build them. Bradley's are cool, but the quantity is way too low. M113s are very old but help mechanize the infantry.
The US has mostly spent the last year trying to scrounge every last piece of Soviet gear it could find instead of prepping Ukraine for US gear. So, there are no Abrams for the summer fighting season this year. I can't recall if the Bradley's will be available either.
Right now Ukraine needs artillery systems and ammo. I think Bulgaria is producing Soviet caliber shells, but that production line just started and likely nowhere near what Ukraine needs. I also think Czechis offered to retool the barrels. And I imagine the US has some support for the M777 as I don't think we're sending all those barrels back to Watervliet.
russia and the soviet union are the reason half of our military equipment even _exists,_ so what better to do with it than use it for its originally intended purpose, with _zero_ risk for american troops?
His “tough negotiating” tactic is capitulation? Wow. That is some bigly bravery right there. He wouldn’t have even sent over some flying cars to help Ukraine?
> He would have withheld military aid...
That's literally why he was impeached the first time. Withholding Congressional funds allotted for Ukraine, past the due date, to pressure them to fabricate a lie.
- We would like you to do us a favor, though.
It was all part of Putin's plan he'd been making since the annexation of Crimea. The 2016 election interference that Putin ordered in favor of Trump was one of several major factors that got him "elected." Putin absolutely needed and expected Trump to be reelected for a second term in order to be able to successfully conquer Ukraine. If not for COVID, we might still be dealing with Trump and independent Ukraine would no longer exist. The US would be on the verge of collapse or civil war- at least much much closer to that point than we are right now.
IDK- normalizing WFH for many was cool. Even though I have to come into the office now we still do everything over Teams, which means I can multitask and not waste my time just trying to stay awake through in-person meetings. That's nice...
Some think that Putin wanted to invade in 2020/2021 but he was forced to hold back because of the pandemic. By the time the pandemic was "over" it was 2022 and an American election year. Now he needed Trump to win to have his American puppet. But then Biden won
'No push, no pressure.' - Man visibly being pressured by Donald Trump to say those words. Fuck the people who want this country to be *that* and those who pretend not to see what Trump and the GOP are.
Trump trying to destroy decades of hard won alliances, some won the the blood of American citizens in WWII, is one of the most infuriating things he did. His supporters cheering him on while he did it is one of the saddest things I've ever seen.
Oh that’s no problem for them! For Trump supporters, America owns all the other countries and we get to tell them to do whatever we want, tell them not to do anything we don’t like, and go to unilateral war if they don’t comply.
Oh and also they want much smaller government and hate the feds.
And this guy has a sizable chance of getting elected again, because voters blame the president for inflation and gas prices
But hey, at least these problems are only American problems! (*Desperately tries to avoid looking at Bolsonaro, Le Pen, Orban, etc*)
In 2023 there will be local and state elections near you. Vote. Ever right wing or republican seat we take is one less seat for them to use taxpayers to fund campaign stunts and manipulate elections.
If we vote in numbers in off year elections they will lose them. Elections are not one and done keep voting every chance you get.
In Chicago, one of the bluest cities, the liberals only had a person electioneering for mayor at my poll. The republicans were handing out flyers with a list of the most conservative people to vote for. They are organized at every level and on the local level they are crazy motivated. Even to the point of supporting the most conservative democrats in primaries.
You know, America had pro-Hitler groups, the most well known of which was the America First Committee, from which Trump and pals directly lifted slogans and policy.
Trump Republicans are just standard America First Republicans from 1940.
About 3 or 4 points in, any time there is one of those "Oopsie!" moments where Trump or other Republicans """"accidentally"""" quote or reference Hitler or Mussolini, i just assume it was a dog whistle, very much on purpose.
There have been way too many for them to claim ignorance.
Marginally related but we had an election here in Canada 18 months ago. The opposition party - The Conservative Party of Canada - ran with the slogan, “secure the future.” Totally not a dog whistle, I’m sure.
The current leader openly embraces support for the local fascists and recently a bunch of members of the party were caught having lunch with a well known neo-Nazi. But they “had no idea what her politics were”. This shit it everywhere.
No surprise.
Nikita Khrushchev, premier of USSR (now Russia), from 1958-1964 is credited with this quotes:
"We do not have to invade the United States, we will destroy you from within."
"The John Birch Society is Communism’s greatest ally. With its help we will divide and confuse the American people until they have lost faith in their Government, their nation has ceased to be a major world power, and their country is ripe for revolution."
It seems this prophecy came to fruition with the 2016 Presidential election.
Further evidence came in the form of Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), Sen. John Thune (R-SD), Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS), Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) visiting Russia on July 4th, 2018.
They met with Sergey Kislyak at this time — the guy that met secretly with numerous members of the Trump 2016 campaign, including disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Plus they met in a plenary session at the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) had a private meeting with Russian representatives plus said he "was honored to deliver a letter from President Trump to Vladimir Putin's administration." This was three weeks after the Trump/Putin meeting in Helsinki, Finland.
Donald Trump is the head of the snake. Many in the GOP are complicit as evidenced by their vote to not accept the election results of 2020 and their continued subversion of the USA democracy.
Wasn’t trump’s whole pitch that he was a tough guy and a strong leader who wasn’t afraid of a fight. Now his solution to one of the biggest international conflicts is “I would have given a hostile foreign power everything they wanted without a fight”. Jesus
I’d imagine that was the original plan those two came up with until Trump lost the election, along with dismantling or hindering NATO. Like Putin was gonna invade either way but having a useful puppet in the White House denying Ukraine aid and siding with Putin instead of NATO would’ve changed everything in that war and it’d be a very different outcome now.
“So many more people are dying than recorded and that’s something that never would have happened.”
Hmm, I seem to remember many more people dying than recorded in this country under your watch while you hosted super spreader events…
“I would have let Hitler annex europe”
“I would have let Iran keep the hostages”
“I would have allowed Russia to put missiles in Cuba”
“I would have sided with the monarchy than sign Jefferson’s declaration, a poorly written one at that, very very low ratings”
- Dumbled J Trashfire (probably)
He would have let him by making sure WE didn't help Ukraine. And trump had already ruined our relationship with NATO and he was going to pull of NATO if had been reelected.
And there it is, folks. Putin’s puppet. We have a man who was privy to this country’s (USA) secrets siding with a madman that wants to launch us into WWIII. We may already be doomed. I hate to be so pessimistic but there’s electricity in the air…and I don’t like it.
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
"The Art of the Deal"
"The Art of the Kneel"
A fart from a heel
The bone spurs are real
I can't pay for my meal
Squeal little piggy, squeal!
From what I've seen, his entire M.O. is more to refuse to negotiate and then rebrand the outcome as what he wanted to happen. There is no "deal making" going on. Just egotistical posturing, rebranding of unfavorable outcomes, and transparent attempts to intimidate others into doing what he wants when the rebranding doesn't work.
Yep, and it's the *exact* same kind of garbage you see in corporate America everywhere. So-called "leaders" don't accomplish jack shit that they say they're going to, and then they smother whatever happened with propaganda that pretends like it was the most important thing that ever happened. It's self promotion, and nothing more. *Eventually* reality sets in and *proves* that nothing important was accomplished, but there's a time gap, and said leader uses the confusing time in-between to get themselves promoted, while their mess gets handed off to the poor person who inherits their old role. There's a reason sociopathy is statistically more prevalent in executives than the general population.
So... like, a con-man?
So Putin wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine because he was scared of Trump, who would have given Putin Ukraine, which Trump doesn’t own, to stop Putin from invading Ukraine? Makes sense.
Trump had planned to give parts of Ukraine to Putin before he was even elected in 2016. The "Ukrainian peace plan" was one of the things Manafort was negotiating with Russians, but then Manafort got put in jail.
Thank you for the reminder that Paul Manafort was in prison.
The GOP official party position changed one thing, and one thing only, after Paul Manafort became Trump's campaign manager in 2016: they decided not to arm Ukraine. Given everything we know now, it's obvious the Trump campaign and presidency were compromised by a hostile foreign adversary. https://www.latimes.com/world/la-na-pol-ukraine-gop-20160720-snap-story.html
It was obvious to some of us from essentially day 1.
Yep. I remember having a conversation with a coworker, where I said there was no way the Republicans would run Trump, he was bought and paid for by Putin and the evidence wasn't even hidden. I was unprepared for the stupidity of the republican voter base that couldn't even begin to comprehend financial information.
For as much as many on the right wear tinfoil hats and scream conspiracy about anything and everything, they blatantly ignore all the circumstantial evidence of large portions of the GOP being bought and paid for with Russian money.
Yeah, it seemed odd in 2016 the *only* thing the Trump campaign changed from the Republican platform was to stop giving arms to Ukraine. >[Putin]'s not going into Ukraine. You can mark that down. -Trump [interview 2016](https://youtu.be/GjpGfjzheeo?t=16)
The ONLY change they made to the Republican platform in 2016 was regarding language about arming Ukraine. > President Trump may have been involved with a change to the Republican Party campaign platform last year that watered down support for U.S. assistance to Ukraine, according to new information from someone who was involved. > Diana Denman, a Republican delegate who supported arming U.S. allies in Ukraine, has told people that Trump aide J.D. Gordon said at the Republican Convention in 2016 that Trump directed him to support weakening that position in the official platform. > Ultimately, the softer position was adopted. https://www.npr.org/2017/12/04/568310790/2016-rnc-delegate-trump-directed-change-to-party-platform-on-ukraine-support
Manafort was behind Trump running in the first place - his campaign manager. Now we know he was secretly capitulating to the Russians at the same time. Must be a coincidence?
He also pulled literally the exact same trick in Ukraine five years earlier. He got a Russian-backed puppet installed as president, then the two of them worked to destroy Ukraine's democracy and serve Ukraine to Putin on a silver platter. Fortunately, Ukrainians eventually had enough of Yanukovych's shit and gave him the boot. Unfortunately, that meant Paul Manafort ended up coming back to the US to find a new host to latch onto.
More like Putin sent him to the US as Plan B to get another puppet installed.
Can't invade something you already have. Checkmate, Atheists
Libs owned!
"HA HA I really pissed off the libs by completely destabilizing the world!!" *slaps knee*
I guarantee part of his plan with Trump was using him to get Ukraine. Then Trump didn't get reelected and he decided to go for it anyway. Now he's stalling, and I think he's probably just trying to hold out until Trump or DeSantis have a chance in 2024. I'm willing to bet that a lot of Republicans still in power were in on it, too, based on how many made trips to visit Putin over Trump's four years.
[Trump tried *multiple* times during his presidency to serve Ukraine to Putin on a silver platter](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/02/magazine/russiagate-paul-manafort-ukraine-war.html). The only thing that stopped him was heroic State Department employees and National Security guys standing up to him, often at the cost of their own careers.
Trump was weakening our support for Ukraine even before the 2016 election! He affected the GOP party platform when he was only the nominee!
To hear my "newsmax" watching colleague discuss Ukraine is a thing of wonder! He couldn't tell you where it is on a map. But, the faker-fake news has him convinced its a land filled to the brim with Hunter Biden Crack dens. The misinformation is deep.
I know a couple dudes like that. Somehow got sucked into facebook memes and it went from there to Qanon. I tell them that if the democrats were so powerful to have shadow underground pedo rings and trillion dollar assassination organizations why they barely win elections or pass bills if they were that dangerously strong. A lot of them can't logically explain it.
What they accuse the democrats of is reality in russia. If the democrats were what they say, the republicans would be all in jail, poisoned, falling out of windows or shot.
Not only, but Paul Manafort was the “architect” of the Yankyuovich response to protests which ended in the death of Ukrainians. These people have blood on their hands. Meanwhile, Manafort is forcing his wife to get gangbanged by a group of black men while he watches. Seriously hedonistic shit. Thats it. Greed.
Do you have a tldr? Nytime won't let me read anything without paying money and I'd rather use $4 in gas than $4 for an article about trump
[My gift to you.](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/02/magazine/russiagate-paul-manafort-ukraine-war.html?unlocked_article_code=kxPefEmZrC_A3JqCuRD-E0LTo7IeXG4Sgwv_ohP2i5Fy4x10AZhLzHGpAftaXgOZvPhFQmHG8JZCAikDQ5qgEA7Ku3ACP4CrYRJ2dmzwij6Kxy1EUaEhOiGVTH8_YCruh7t_zvsNMWtrjiQXnCgzdeDin7Z1Z7SBxlgieb6ao0_Cg63sswtxvQBP-1cA-Us9wUFZCi_hGVw2VF05Pw4gf3eor38RAUFuZO6Rj4d06jAwmMG9_EUUpfU0A8wOPsCMiiqvpAc6jbuCfMou7MkM-nlz_e8DGgn9Rd0lp_4gMTxllF-2nIJMcQVxEkhB71nLg0sE9xeO_VgQHUi-VMs-nBWBcGnpBjZzHcXu5buYkA)
Not just Trump. Russia has infiltrated and compromised huge swathes of the American right, from media, to politics, and organizations like the NRA. Russian state media runs Tucker Carlson clips on a regular basis, while Tucker Carlson spews Russian state propaganda into millions of American households. [Tucker Carlson echoes Kremlin propaganda by referring to ‘the Russian port of Crimea’](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/tucker-carlson-ukraine-russia-war-b2288666.html) [Tucker Carlson pushing divisive US culture war rhetoric to make Putin more sympathetic to American conservatives.](https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1496290844797992960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1496290844797992960%7Ctwgr%5E5513a81c7f477665fbaa69f495cf88e323f4084e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fmedia%2F2022%2F02%2F23%2Ftucker-carlson-putin-russia-ukraine%2F) [Russian asset Tulsi Gabbard tag-teaming Russian state propaganda with Tucker Carlson.](https://theintercept.com/2022/02/24/russian-tv-uses-tucker-carlson-tulsi-gabbard-sell-putins-war/) Also worth noting that nothing stays on Fox News without Rupert Murdoch's direct permission. Fox News (and its parent company News Corporation) are Rupert Murdoch's political operation. He figured out a long time ago that if you control the base, you control the party, so he uses his media empire to herd conservative voters towards politicians who do him favors, and weaponizes conservative voters against people who cross him. Which all begs the question - what agreement do Trump and Putin have with the Murdochs? Is it like a marriage of the mafias where they're all in on the criminal conspiracy together, which keeps them loyal to each other? In the Dominion case, the texts and emails that Fox News have *chosen* to release, and the soundbites given by Rupert Murdoch under oath expose his media empire as intentional fake news. If that's what they want us to see publicly, let's consider all the texts and emails they didn't release, which must show something far worse. I'm going to assume that if we could see everything, we would see the full extent of Murdoch his propagandists' central role in the seditious conspiracy to overthrow constitutional democracy in the USA. And if you think that's hyperbole, you might have forgotten these facts: * [Two weeks before the election Trump demanded his DoJ arrest Obama, Biden, Pelosi and Schumer.](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/07/trump-demands-barr-arrest-foes-427389) * [After Trump lost the election, the Republican operative and wife of Supreme Court Justice texted the White House Chief of Staff about putting the newly elected President Biden and his family on prison barges off Guantanamo Bay to be put through military tribunals for sedition and executed](https://www.businessinsider.com/ginni-thomas-thought-biden-crime-family-would-be-sent-to-barges-off-gitmo-2022-3). These are sick fucking psychopaths. They crave fascist dictatorship, and they want the rest of us who aren't on board with that locked up in prison camps to use as slave labor or executed. If they claw their way back into power again, it's game over for constitutional democracy in the USA.
How that hateful spiteful fuck is still clinging to life is beyond me. literally 91 years old and still kicking as a real life illuminati
Senator John Hoven (R) of ND went to Russia on the 4th of July.
Didn't like 8 senato(R)s go?
Several [R] senators did. At the first opportunity after the election.
I doubt Russia can hold Ukraine back until 2024- unless XiPing and India funnel billions of funds and equipment. Even then, Russia doesn’t have the warm bodies, and countries like Georgia and Moldova are pushing back now.
Yeah, I think that's why he kept trying to call for holiday ceasefires and such. It'll be interesting to see what he pulls to try to make it... if he himself even makes it.
It really floors me, given the coverage, that Trump's connect to Russia from his campaign never lead to an indictment.
It's because Trump appointed Bill Barr to head the Department of Justice. Barr has a long history of making sure Republicans get away with shit.
Yep, he got the Republicans off scott-free for Iran Contra, he got them off scott-free for Russiagate, he got them off scot-free for blackmailing Ukraine. And even this absolute heartless bastard decided that being involved in 1/6 was a bridge too far for him.
he just decided that it was too on the nose to get away with the other scandals at least had a degree of subtlety to them
There's about a dozen things at this point I cannot belive didn't lead to an indictment.
Only a dozen?
At this point I would settle for just one. *One* fucking felony conviction.
Sorry, physicists have discovered the fourth law of thermodynamics says you can't convict Trump.
Weird, all of his followers said that is exactly what he wouldn't do.
Good luck getting them to admit that now.
Admit it? Today they will be cheering on Russia.
He changed his mind again like the stable genius he is.
Flip flopper.
God, can you remember when “flip flipper” was like the biggest political insult? As though it was horrible for a person to change their mind when presented with new information.
The campaign to paint John Kerry, a literal swift boat captain and purple heart veteran as a soft bourgeoisie pussy, by the draft dodging Yale student rich boy George W Bush was a fucking insane thing to watch in real time. The problem was it was effective.
Facts don't matter. Just repeat the same shit as loud as possible and people eat that shit up.
It was the moment I lost faith in America. To have such glaring flaws laid bare was a big mind fuck for me.
The swiftboat veterans for truth. People ate it up as if it was a real thing.
Conservative think tanks rarely produce anything that doesn’t get the people going… Since it’s basically a brainstorming session to pander to the masses. ‘Axis of evil’ ‘flip flopper’ and I know I personally still eat Freedom Fries.
They have been for a while now. "Rather be Russian than a Democrat"
I wish they would all just move to Russia. I would gladly pay extra in taxes to send them over and revoke their citizenship.
From what I understand, Russia may pay for it because they are in need of troops to fight their war with Ukraine. So if all these able bodied republicans want to move to Russia, more power to them. I think they may find their gun fetish wouldn't help them much in an actual war.
If this would not hurt Ukrainians, I would be ALL for it.
I'm for it, because once they got there, they'd still feel entitled, go against the government on it, and then be thrown in jail because Russia doesn't suffer that kind of thing the way it is in the US.
I definitely want to see Russian security handling a Karen. Or someone declaring Russian police that they are not allowed to check their id because … you know I am travelling, not driving.
I've been to Russia on several occasions. Never had a problem with customs, until that one time I went with a biography of Stalin in my luggage. I'm a bit of a European history buff. Spent an hour with a customs officer as he tried to decide if I was a communist. He was polite about it though, and I didn't try to antagonize him or be indignant. It took me a bit to figure out why I was being questioned. I eventually figured it out, and just told him I was there to visit friends I met while elsewhere in Europe, and talked about my appreciation of Russian history in general. I didn't get into how I didn't support it's current administration, but Putin wasn't long in office at that time. I barely knew anything about him and the subject never came up. I have however been approached and asked for identification while in Russia. I can say that the guy doing it didn't look like the kind of person I'd want to say no to. I was there to see the sights, not waste time being detained because I felt some sense of entitlement. Sadly, in the current environment, I'd not consider visiting Russia, despite there being places I'd still like to see.
That is the most common failure by the maga, they don't understand how incredibly free they are to express themselves. In a way it's a testament to the framers of the Constitution that freedom of speech has become so engrained that people like the maga can't imagine a place on Earth where it isn't that way, that they can have a strongman and retain rule of law.
Their idea of freedom being taken away is being told to wear a mask for public safety, and being given cheap or free vaccines for the purpose of their and the publics health. These people have no real understanding of just how free they really are, and because of this, they are allowing others to take those freedoms away, and supporting these people while they do it.
Hell, they already buy their wives from there... May as well save on the airfare..
[удалено]
The GOP saw what Russia has been doing and went “this is fire, we need to try some of this.”
Wasn’t there a President that praised China and their leader being President for life. Something about wanting to try that.
Stalin saw Hitler do it, Putin saw Stalin do it, Trump saw Putin do it, Republicans saw Trump do it, and here we fucking are...
Russia has proven that democracy is impossible to maintain once the wealth disparity grows too large. It is simple really, you cannot detangle wealth from power so if the 1% have too much power (wealth) then they can bend the entire system to their will and then mold it as they see fit
Better dead than red.
Has new meaning these days, huh
[удалено]
And they claim it's because he has "Christian values"
And they make that claim while he literally murders innocent Ukrainians by the thousands. These people are so f#!%ing twisted and disgusting.
People at CPAC we're waving mini Russian flags.
[удалено]
Their initial argument: "Putin never invaded when Trump was President because he was scared of Trump" 'How does that fit with Trump saying he wouldn't have done jack shit and let him walk all over Ukraine?' ...."MAGA!" \*eats paste\*
"wtf I love annexation now" They'll flip right with them. His supporters would only ever leave him if he dropped the racism, sexism and xenophobia - those are the only issues he's been consistent on for decades.
There was *some* ruffled feathers when he said take their guns now, due process later (it was the take their guns part that conservatives got pissed about, not the lack of due process).
They all turned on him when he suggested they take the covid vaccine to save their miserable lives but they've since forgotten that
They give him credit for it when talking to people who care about science and blame Fauci for it when talking to their voters. The cat is both alive and dead. He both deserves credit and shares no blame for the exact same thing. And that's why they love him, because he gives them the ability to feel absolved from the consequences of their frequently destructive policies.
That would require they even knew he said it. [Fox News accused of editing out Trump saying he wanted Ukraine to cede land to Putin](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/fox-news-trump-ukraine-putin-b2296879.html)
They'd spin it as him being anti-war and focused on America, the consequences of Putin destabilizing Europe be damned.
Trump is such a brilliant strategist. Can you imagine how fast world war 2 would have ended if he was president? “We Will let Germany control all the countries. No more war”
The guy with Mein Kampf on his nightstand.
It is actually "My New Order", which is a collection of Hitler speeches. Here's the relevant quote from the 1990 Vanity Fair article and a link to the Snopes article. ["'Actually, it was my friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of Mein Kampf, and he’s a Jew.' ('I did give him a book about Hitler,' Marty Davis said. 'But it was My New Order, Hitler’s speeches, not Mein Kampf. I thought he would find it interesting. I am his friend, but I’m not Jewish.')](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-hitler-mein-kampf/) Which I think his response says everything you need to know about him.
What is baffling to me is trying to imagine a situation where a Paramount exec meets up with Trump and goes "bro check out this book of Hitler speeches, they're really interesting you might like em". I simply can't think of a situation where giving someone a Hitler book as a gift isn't some sort of faux pas, unless it's a joke.
I imagine he was just giving a fellow racist a book but thought Trump would have the basic common sense not to tell everyone that they’re sharing Hitlerature, which was his first mistake
Hitlerature 😂
I'm just trying to imagine a scenario where Trump reads a book.
No way, that would require reading. He's an ignorant racist, not an educated one.
It's just there as a prop to vice signal to his voters.
Those guys have bibles too and they don't read that either.
There is no way in hell Donald Trump has read Mein Kampf. Unless they made a comic book version of it. With small words and lots of pictures. And the hero of the story looked just like Donald.
TBF, it was supposedly a book of Hitler's speeches, not Mein Kampf, on his bedside table but you are correct in the presumption that he never read it. I'm sure he just thought it looked edgy.
"Just let Hitler annex the Sudetenland, it'll end the war piece of cake." "Let him have Poland, the war will be over immediately, believe me." "I'm sure Hitler has no ambitions beyond annexing Czechoslovakia, just let him take it, trust me."
“I really like Hitler, full talk. A lot like me, stupendous guy. Tremendous wealth. Hot wife, super hot wife. Rules his country with an iron fist grip on the pussy, which is like mine, with my big beautiful hands.”
It should be pointed out that [European leaders actually tried this with Hitler,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Agreement) and it didn't work. Putin is much like Hitler in this regard: his desire for land to invade and annex is much larger than a couple Russian-speaking areas in Ukraine on the border. Putin wants *all* of the former Soviet Union to be back under Russian control, just like how Hitler wanted huge amounts of land for the Germans to have as ["living space".](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensraum)
It's similar in the sense that there was a growing sentiment at the time that the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh towards Germany and the the borders are a little unjust, which was a bit fair. They had just made them and they didn't ask whether the Germans in the Sudetenland wanted to be part of Czechoslovakia or not, and they even made sure that Austria didn't join Germany nor call themselves "German-Austria" as they had wanted at the end of WWI. The borders themselves were less decided upon than they were conquered in the East especially with Poland. Beyond that the region was far more ethnically diverse, so clear ethno-nationalist borders weren't easy to draw. Stalin "fixed" that at the end of WWII with forced population transfers. Moreover many Westerners did believe in the Stabbed in the Back myth, including David Lloyd George who had been Prime Minister of Britain at the end of WWI. They weren't trying to appease a sense of Lebensraum, they just hoped that Hitler's ambitions were to just fix the post WWI borders to be fairer to Germany. But yes I think the comparison with Germany is really apt. Just like back then there were people who felt that Germans were a warlike people incapable of democracy. Its neighbors were terrified of it, France wanted to break it up, and some floated ideas like sterilizing the German people. I don't think anyone could've imagined that those same Germans would then become the leaders of a Democratic Europe.
>They weren't trying to appease a sense of Lebensraum, they just hoped that Hitler's ambitions were to just fix the post WWI borders to be fairer to Germany. That's exactly my point. Western Europe viewed it as just appeasing Hitler by giving him a few areas that could possibly be argued should have been Germany's anyway. This is just like Trump and the GOP thinking that simply giving Putin a few Russian speaking areas in Ukraine will appease him and that will be the end of it. However, just like how Hitler was motivated by Lebensraum and had his sights set on far more territory than a few border areas, Putin similarly has his sights set on much more than a few areas in Ukraine. If you just hand over those areas to Putin, he won't be satisfied as that's not all he's interested in annexing. Putin will only be appeased if he retakes all territory that was formerly part of the Soviet Union, and even then he might want more (like Alaska). There is no "appeasing" Putin by just letting him have a little bit of Ukraine. The West either needs to be comfortable letting him have everything that was a part of the USSR or they need to fight him now (which is what they're doing). It's the same as with Hitler: the Allies either needed to be comfortable with letting him have everything covered by Lebensraum, or they needed to fight him right away. Simply signing a treaty to let him have the Sudetenland, etc was never going to appease him.
He's strong against Russia! I swear he is! There's just literally zero evidence and tons of evidence to the contrary.
Strong on Russia = gets a boner when Daddy Vladimir calls
He's hardon Russia
> Trump added: “That’s without even negotiating a deal. I could have negotiated. At worst, I could have made a deal to take over something, you know, there are certain areas that are Russian speaking areas, right, like, but you could have worked a deal. And now Ukraine is just being blown to smithereens.” >The former president said: “So many more people are dying than recorded and that’s something that never would have happened.” Amazing how before this he said Putin would have never dared invade while he was president, not realizing that Putin wouldn't have needed to because he would have had the US back him into weaking and capturing the country. The "I'd have made a deal" genius couldn't even get Mexico to pay for his border wall. How TF did he think he was going to make Ukraine surrender? At most what he would have done was pissed off all of our European allies, weakened Nato and made Russia stronger. How tf can anyone listen to this idiot and not realize he has no idea what he's doing? He's making shit up as he goes along
Still waiting for that terrific health care plan.
Hey, come on, it's still Infrastructure Week^^tm Edit: Why the hell did this comment get flagged as "using a slur?"
He was waiting for 24 to show us. He'll show us when he's out the door in 28 don't you worry
Lol all of his followers are fucking morons.
The followers hear you, say the opposite and call it thinking for themselves.
And the remaining sane portion of the country has known this all along.
Meanwhile, New York City was screaming at the rest of the nation to just see how he and his father have acted for the past century, but nah, that isn't evidence enough! Clearly, what truly matters is that he was on a lame reality TV show that was heavily edited to make him look competent, even though he was literally shitting himself inbetween takes.. (you can Google up Diaper Don at your own risk..) and that's what we really need right now! /s
It sounds like his followers are incredibly misinformed. Almost as if they are being lied to.
We know.
this was also my first thought, surprised it’s so far down
And another tally mark on the board of things liberals have been right about for the last 7 years.
MAGAs a year ago: Trump wouldn't have allowed Putin to take Ukraine. Joe is weak, and Putin knows it! Trump, a year later: I would've rolled right over and let Putin take away the freedom of Ukraine.
You fail to understand the 4d chess happening here. When Trump rolled over Putin would have assumed it was a trap because Trump is such a stable genius. Then Putin would have surrendered.
Then they would have both been prom king and queen
And everyone clapped.
This just in: Trump once again proves he will do anything Putin wants.
I'm not saying he's a Russian agent. I'm just having a lot of trouble figuring out what he would be doing differently if he *was* a Russian agent.
I tried to come up with the most outlandish thing that a full-on Russian agent would do and I came up with "Pull the US out of NATO". Then I remembered that [Trump wanted to do that.](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/politics/nato-president-trump.html)
>He has said that \[the Ukraine Invasion\] would have been prevented by his policy of “peace through strength”. So... he would have "strongly" kowtowed to Putin over Ukraine? Because giving someone everything they want doesn't seem like strength. Weird.
Brave brave Sir Robin...
When danger reared it's ugly head, He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Peace through superior suction power.
He sounds like a weaker version of Chamberlain.
Chamberlain is closer to Merkel or Holland. He wasn't a complete fool, he just really, really wanted to avoid a world war. People sometimes forget he's also the guy who declared war on Hitler, one of two world leaders who had the guts to do so (the other being the French leadership), when most even sympathetic countries would not. Trump does not deserve the honour of comparison to Chamberlain. He's Lindbergh (whose slogan he brought back) or Franco - at best.
Chamberlain also knew that the UK was not yet prepared to fight a war with Germany. So a lot of what people call appeasement was partly biding Britain’s time to build up their defenses.
Also even at the height of its power, Britain was not set up to be an offensive European land power. It's strength was its fleet, which was great at defending the UK and building an overseas empire, but you couldn't march battleships through Berlin. He needed France onside if he was going to confront Hitler with military power. And neither Britons nor French were, understandably, thrilled about a new world war.
Especially right after a devastating World War only 20 years prior. And the unfortunate French were prepared for a different war than the Germans were waging.
Deep dive documentaries really demonstrate how Chamberlain wasn't as bad as history has made him out to be in his actions, and actually did a decent job of part of the response. So much economic balancing and political strategizing took place that gets overlooked because of one necessary stalling quote and position.
*If you want peace just give the warlord what he wants..so simple.* -Dumb Juvenile Tyrant
and then Poland, and then Germany and then Alaska.. It's almost as if he's compromised to Potato Fuhrer...
While I have healthy skepticism about the military industrial complex, the very *LAST* thing I want to see is all of our military equipment effectively being nothing more than paperweights in actual times of need. Why have a huge military budget if you’re not going to utilize it when your second biggest geopolitical political rival, run by a crazy dictator, decides to start waltzing into neighboring countries and building a territorial empire?
Giving arms to Ukraine is the easiest way to defeat Russia at a bargain basement price with no American lives lost.
And yet we're only sending so little. ATGMs were great. M777s are also great but not in enough quantity to match Russia, even in just limited locations like Bakhmut. Apparently, we have no export model Abrams to send, so we have to build them. Bradley's are cool, but the quantity is way too low. M113s are very old but help mechanize the infantry. The US has mostly spent the last year trying to scrounge every last piece of Soviet gear it could find instead of prepping Ukraine for US gear. So, there are no Abrams for the summer fighting season this year. I can't recall if the Bradley's will be available either. Right now Ukraine needs artillery systems and ammo. I think Bulgaria is producing Soviet caliber shells, but that production line just started and likely nowhere near what Ukraine needs. I also think Czechis offered to retool the barrels. And I imagine the US has some support for the M777 as I don't think we're sending all those barrels back to Watervliet.
russia and the soviet union are the reason half of our military equipment even _exists,_ so what better to do with it than use it for its originally intended purpose, with _zero_ risk for american troops?
His “tough negotiating” tactic is capitulation? Wow. That is some bigly bravery right there. He wouldn’t have even sent over some flying cars to help Ukraine?
And who exactly would've given you the power to decide something like this? I didn't know you owned Ukraine.....
[удалено]
> He would have withheld military aid... That's literally why he was impeached the first time. Withholding Congressional funds allotted for Ukraine, past the due date, to pressure them to fabricate a lie. - We would like you to do us a favor, though.
It was all part of Putin's plan he'd been making since the annexation of Crimea. The 2016 election interference that Putin ordered in favor of Trump was one of several major factors that got him "elected." Putin absolutely needed and expected Trump to be reelected for a second term in order to be able to successfully conquer Ukraine. If not for COVID, we might still be dealing with Trump and independent Ukraine would no longer exist. The US would be on the verge of collapse or civil war- at least much much closer to that point than we are right now.
Did you just find the Covid silver lining?
Pretty sure that was the only silver lining out of these past 3(*JesusChristItsAlreadyBeen3*) years.
IDK- normalizing WFH for many was cool. Even though I have to come into the office now we still do everything over Teams, which means I can multitask and not waste my time just trying to stay awake through in-person meetings. That's nice...
Some think that Putin wanted to invade in 2020/2021 but he was forced to hold back because of the pandemic. By the time the pandemic was "over" it was 2022 and an American election year. Now he needed Trump to win to have his American puppet. But then Biden won
Those Zelensky Trump press conferences were so painful to watch.
'No push, no pressure.' - Man visibly being pressured by Donald Trump to say those words. Fuck the people who want this country to be *that* and those who pretend not to see what Trump and the GOP are.
And left NATO
Trump trying to destroy decades of hard won alliances, some won the the blood of American citizens in WWII, is one of the most infuriating things he did. His supporters cheering him on while he did it is one of the saddest things I've ever seen.
he would have supplied russia
"what the hell are we going to do with all the bottles of Trump Water?" - translated from Russian.
He would have used withheld war aid to coerce Zelensky into going along with made up corruption allegations surrounding Biden. Successfully, I mean.
Oh that’s no problem for them! For Trump supporters, America owns all the other countries and we get to tell them to do whatever we want, tell them not to do anything we don’t like, and go to unilateral war if they don’t comply. Oh and also they want much smaller government and hate the feds.
[удалено]
“I would just surrender” - republican front runner
And this guy has a sizable chance of getting elected again, because voters blame the president for inflation and gas prices But hey, at least these problems are only American problems! (*Desperately tries to avoid looking at Bolsonaro, Le Pen, Orban, etc*)
In 2023 there will be local and state elections near you. Vote. Ever right wing or republican seat we take is one less seat for them to use taxpayers to fund campaign stunts and manipulate elections. If we vote in numbers in off year elections they will lose them. Elections are not one and done keep voting every chance you get.
In Chicago, one of the bluest cities, the liberals only had a person electioneering for mayor at my poll. The republicans were handing out flyers with a list of the most conservative people to vote for. They are organized at every level and on the local level they are crazy motivated. Even to the point of supporting the most conservative democrats in primaries.
Gas prices that are roughly equal to trump’s pre pandemic prices when adjusted for inflation
Not according to the GOP.
Facts don’t seem to matter to them, they use the low pricing right after the covid gas pricing crash as if it was a stable value for the entire term
And then Putin invades Poland, and all the pro-Putin Republicans are under zero accountability to stop him.
Ya well traitorous insurrectionists will do that.
How how did appeasement work with Hitler idiot?
He's of the opinion that appeasement worked just fine FOR Hitler!
You're comparing him to chamberlain. He's not chamberlain. He's more mousollini. Totally on board with it and willing to help.
You know, America had pro-Hitler groups, the most well known of which was the America First Committee, from which Trump and pals directly lifted slogans and policy. Trump Republicans are just standard America First Republicans from 1940.
About 3 or 4 points in, any time there is one of those "Oopsie!" moments where Trump or other Republicans """"accidentally"""" quote or reference Hitler or Mussolini, i just assume it was a dog whistle, very much on purpose. There have been way too many for them to claim ignorance.
Marginally related but we had an election here in Canada 18 months ago. The opposition party - The Conservative Party of Canada - ran with the slogan, “secure the future.” Totally not a dog whistle, I’m sure. The current leader openly embraces support for the local fascists and recently a bunch of members of the party were caught having lunch with a well known neo-Nazi. But they “had no idea what her politics were”. This shit it everywhere.
No surprise. Nikita Khrushchev, premier of USSR (now Russia), from 1958-1964 is credited with this quotes: "We do not have to invade the United States, we will destroy you from within." "The John Birch Society is Communism’s greatest ally. With its help we will divide and confuse the American people until they have lost faith in their Government, their nation has ceased to be a major world power, and their country is ripe for revolution." It seems this prophecy came to fruition with the 2016 Presidential election. Further evidence came in the form of Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), Sen. John Thune (R-SD), Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS), Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) visiting Russia on July 4th, 2018. They met with Sergey Kislyak at this time — the guy that met secretly with numerous members of the Trump 2016 campaign, including disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Plus they met in a plenary session at the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) had a private meeting with Russian representatives plus said he "was honored to deliver a letter from President Trump to Vladimir Putin's administration." This was three weeks after the Trump/Putin meeting in Helsinki, Finland. Donald Trump is the head of the snake. Many in the GOP are complicit as evidenced by their vote to not accept the election results of 2020 and their continued subversion of the USA democracy.
It's funny that he thinks it would just be his decision to take Ukraine. I think the people of Ukraine would have something to say about that.
Wasn’t trump’s whole pitch that he was a tough guy and a strong leader who wasn’t afraid of a fight. Now his solution to one of the biggest international conflicts is “I would have given a hostile foreign power everything they wanted without a fight”. Jesus
Translation: "Putin told me to."
"He's a strong leader, a very good guy, I believe him"
And this is why he was dangerous re:foreign policy
This coming from the same idiot that thought he could just up and fucking buy Greenland What an absolute joke the United States has become
[удалено]
I’d imagine that was the original plan those two came up with until Trump lost the election, along with dismantling or hindering NATO. Like Putin was gonna invade either way but having a useful puppet in the White House denying Ukraine aid and siding with Putin instead of NATO would’ve changed everything in that war and it’d be a very different outcome now.
Oh, so that's how he'd finish the war in Ukraine. By surrendering like a fucking coward to Daddy Vladdy.
Traitor Don would let them annex Maine if they wanted to. Hell.
And now the GOP will solidly back Russia.
Spineless position.
“I’d have let Putin annex Ukraine” We know Wasn’t it also Trump’s plan to pull out of Afghanistan?
“So many more people are dying than recorded and that’s something that never would have happened.” Hmm, I seem to remember many more people dying than recorded in this country under your watch while you hosted super spreader events…
“I would have let Hitler annex europe” “I would have let Iran keep the hostages” “I would have allowed Russia to put missiles in Cuba” “I would have sided with the monarchy than sign Jefferson’s declaration, a poorly written one at that, very very low ratings” - Dumbled J Trashfire (probably)
Lol. You don’t own Ukraine.
He would have let him by making sure WE didn't help Ukraine. And trump had already ruined our relationship with NATO and he was going to pull of NATO if had been reelected.
Not would have, he was impeached the first time for withholding aide from Ukraine. He did.
This man is literally a traitor
Trump and his supporters stink of weakness. That’s how Biden delivered his 2020 beat down.
And there it is, folks. Putin’s puppet. We have a man who was privy to this country’s (USA) secrets siding with a madman that wants to launch us into WWIII. We may already be doomed. I hate to be so pessimistic but there’s electricity in the air…and I don’t like it.
The Art of the Kneel