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Behind Trump’s Views on Ukraine: Putin’s Gambit and a Political Grudge
The New York Times ^ | Oct. 5, 2024Updated 7:42 a.m. ET | Mark Mazzetti and Adam Entous

Posted on 10/08/2024 12:01:20 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

On July 7, 2017, after President Donald J. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia shook hands in Hamburg, Germany, to conclude their first face-to-face meeting, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson walked out of the sterile conference room, removed notes from his pocket and gave anxious White House aides a summary.

“We’ve got work to do to change the president’s mind on Ukraine,” Mr. Tillerson said.

The secretary of state had just watched Mr. Putin, the former K.G.B. spymaster, put on a master class in seeking to shape the thinking of the new American president.

The Russian leader disparaged Ukraine, a former Soviet republic with aspirations of joining the European Union and NATO. Ukraine, he told Mr. Trump, was a corrupt, fabricated country. Russia, which had seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine three years earlier and backed pro-Russia separatists in a border region, had every right to exert its influence over the country, he insisted.

Mr. Trump told Mr. Putin that his administration was considering giving weapons to Ukraine. “What do you think?” Mr. Trump asked, to which Mr. Putin said it would be “a mistake.” Whatever America gave the Ukrainians, he said, they would ask for more.

Mr. Trump, who came to the meeting armed with hawkish talking points drawn up by his advisers, never pushed back, according to three American officials who were in Hamburg for the summit.

The meeting is something of a historical footnote to the Trump presidency. It has long been overshadowed by the summit with Mr. Putin the next year in Helsinki, when Mr. Trump famously said he took the word of Mr. Putin over his own intelligence agencies on the question of whether Russia had interfered with the 2016 presidential election.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Humor
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1 posted on 10/08/2024 12:01:20 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

And I’m sure Kamala would masterfully outmaneuver Putin at every turn.


2 posted on 10/08/2024 12:04:28 PM PDT by NurdlyPeon (It is the nature of liberals to pervert whatever they touch.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Well, Trump was a Russian spy, who had a secret server in his office with a direct line to Putin, and Putin manipulated Facebook to elect Trump in 2016, while Donald Jr. was having an affair with a hot female Russian spy.

Isn’t that right, NY Times?!


3 posted on 10/08/2024 12:05:22 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“We’ve got work to do to change the president’s mind on Ukraine,” Mr. Tillerson said.”

And THAT is the problem. Remember how they freaked out that he met with Putin only with an interpreter? The DC swamp does not recognize that the President sets policy.
They view THEIR positions as legitimate and insist that he fall in line with them.

Putin had very solid grounds and Trump is pragmatic and could see the truth.


4 posted on 10/08/2024 12:23:56 PM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2024... RETURN OF THE JEDI. )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“Mr. Trump, who came to the meeting armed with hawkish talking points drawn up by his advisers, never pushed back, according to three American officials who were in Hamburg for the summit.”

That is probably because he realized his advisors were full of BS.

We saw this later. When Vindman said in testimony that “Trump did not follow the recommendations of the interagency group”.
The advisors EXPECT to be obeyed.


5 posted on 10/08/2024 12:26:44 PM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2024... RETURN OF THE JEDI. )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Sounds like the efite snobs at State was the source for this NYT hit piece. They view themselves as being very much the same as the DOJ, an independent Bureau within the Presidentially controlled Executive Branch.


6 posted on 10/08/2024 12:32:11 PM PDT by Rowdyone (Vigilence)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

This article is a tour de force of how the State Department, McMaster as Nat Security Advisor, and Pompeo at CIA worked feverishly to undermine Trump’s stated policy goal of better US/Russian relations. And they did so behind his back.

The article even comically observes at one point that the “president’s statements were often at odds with official US policy”.

WTH? His statements ARE the policy. They literally believe the deep state sets the policy and he needs to fall in line.
That is why Putin recently observed that it really doesn’t matter who wins to them, because the deep state is the actual power and it’s all in for Russia as a permanent enemy.


7 posted on 10/08/2024 12:42:22 PM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2024... RETURN OF THE JEDI. )
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To: Rowdyone

True... the DOJ and FBI laughably consider themselves independent. State is the same way. As is CIA.


8 posted on 10/08/2024 12:43:38 PM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2024... RETURN OF THE JEDI. )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Bla bla bla


9 posted on 10/08/2024 2:34:03 PM PDT by eclectic (Liberalism is a mental disorder)
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