After Fighting Ukraine Aid, Trump Says Biden Will ‘Give’ Ukraine to Putin: Donald Trump suggested he would do more to protect the country from Russia, seeking to flip the script on the president, who has been calling for more military aid for months.

New York Times ^ | Feb. 14, 2024 | Michael Gold

[UMCRevMom@aol.com]

For many months, President Biden has been rallying global leaders to provide more military aid to Ukraine and pressing Congress to pass a multibillion-dollar aid package to help the country beat back Russian aggression. Former President Donald J. Trump has been undermining that effort, pressing Republicans to thwart it.

But on Wednesday, Mr. Trump tried to flip the script, suggesting that he would do more to protect Ukraine than Mr. Biden, who he said would effectively cede Ukraine as a gift to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

Speaking at a campaign event in North Charleston, S.C., Mr. Trump said that, under a Biden presidency, Mr. Putin is “going to be given everything he wants, including Ukraine. That’s a gift. He’s got a gift.”

Then Mr. Trump — who often positively invokes Mr. Putin as an authoritarian strongman, and who acknowledged in his speech that they got along — doubled down, saying that Mr. Biden “is going to give” Ukraine to Mr. Putin.

Mr. Biden has repeatedly vowed to help Ukraine defend itself for “as long as it takes,” pledging that “our commitment to Ukraine will not weaken.” Mr. Trump, by contrast, has previously said that he would consider letting Russia “take over” parts of Ukraine in a negotiated deal to end the war.

A day earlier, the Senate, in a bipartisan vote, approved an additional $60.1 billion in assistance to Kyiv to help it fight Russia’s invasion, part of a long-debated foreign aid package for Ukraine and Israel.

[BeauBo]

“There should be no doubt that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if Donald Trump had been re-elected… Putin smells weakness and the Democrats are weak.”

There was also the election of Scholz in Germany, a former student anti-NATO protest leader, who had been cultivated by former communist government of East Germany. Putin must have seen the Biden Scholz combo as the chance of the century.

Weakness invites aggression.

[tlozo]

What the hell did Zelenskyyyyy do with all the “aid” Joe Pedo has been giving him for the past few years?

Destroyed half of the Russian military, including sinking half of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

[buwaya]

Short answer is that the Ukrainians have been shooting it (US aid) at the Russians.

What do you think that aid was?

[FlingWingFlyer]

I don’t buy anything I read in the “mainstream media”. It’s all lies. Especially from this administration.

[buwaya]

Thats quite a lot of material you arent looking at. It truly is vast.
At some point, your position approaches that of the people who deny the US Moon landing.

[buwaya]

And only a very tiny part of the available info - videos, lists, testimony, military analysis and commentary - is in the MSM at all.

[FlingWingFlyer]

That’s a pretty goofy comparison but okay. Whatever you say hoss. I’m not going to fight with you Bidenskyyyyyy supporters.

[mac_truck]

This CIA coup thing doesn’t wash, unless the CIA somehow had control of 800,000 robots in Ukraine.

That's not how the CIA operates you moron.

[Rockingham]

Trump is correct in that far more can be done to isolate and injure Russia economically without going to war or spending very much money.

[dforest]

I believe this is a purposeful misrepresntation of what Trump said. No other source is reporting this.

[Redmen4ever]

thanks Beau

Germany bears a lot of responsibility. France and UK meet or almost meet their NATO obligation. Germany, with its enormous GDP, needs to step up to its obligation.

[Petrosius]

This CIA coup thing doesn’t wash, unless the CIA somehow had control of 800,000 robots in Ukraine.

Indeed. It also ignores the fact that there were two presidential election afterwards. Whatever happened in 2014, it does not justify Putin's invasion now. Those who keep referring to it are merely justifying what is, in truth, just Putin trying to reverse what he describes as "Lenin's mistake" and bring Ukraine back into Russian control.

[Monterrosa-24]

“...no doubt that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if Donald Trump had been re-elected… Putin smells weakness and the Democrats are weak.”

Putin and his henchmen believed too much of their own propaganda and underestimated Ukraine’s resurgent military. Ukraine has done a remarkable job of countering their gigantic neighbor’s invading forces.

The Russian Army has inferior equipment from their high-signature counter-battery radar to their thermal image equipment to their tactical rockets. Their soldiers are poorly trained. Their officers cannot execute proper combined arms ops. The reputation of the Russian Army has not been lower since 1905. It was the Japanese who humiliated Russia then and it is Ukraine that is humiliating Russia today.

[daniel1212]

There should be no doubt that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if Donald Trump had been re-elected. Putin invaded Ukraine while Obama was President and he invaded Ukraine a second time when Biden became President. Putin smells weakness and the Democrats are weak.

Liberals at least once thought he was too tough on Russia (while also claiming to be a puppet for Putin):

"When you actually look at the substance of what this administration has done, not the rhetoric but the substance, this administration has been much tougher on Russia than any in the post-Cold War era," said Daniel Vajdich, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. Take military spending: Trump sought to add $1.4 billion for fiscal year 2018 to the European Deterrence Initiative — a military effort to deter Russian aggression that was initially known as the European Reassurance Initiative. That's a 41 percent increase from the last year of the Obama administration.
The president also agreed to send lethal weapons to Ukraine — a step that Obama resisted. And Trump gave U.S. forces in Syria more leeway to engage with Russian troops... "Those loosened rules of engagement have resulted in direct military clashes with Russian militants and mercenaries on the ground, actually resulting in one incident in hundreds of casualties on the Russian side," Vajdich said.
The administration has also imposed sanctions on dozens of Russian oligarchs and government officials... tough policies...have to be weighed against Trump's rhetoric, which is consistently friendly to Putin. ."There's a real disconnect between the president's words and the underlying policy," said Richard Fontaine, president of the Center for a New American Security. - https://www.npr.org/2018/07/20/630659379/is-trump-the-toughest-ever-on-russia

And from from 12/26/17 there is

Trump Sends Tank-Killing Missile To Fight Russia in Ukraine, But What Can It Do? By John Haltiwanger On 12/26/17 at 5:53 PM EST The decision to sell the Javelin missiles also comes not long after the Trump administration approved a limited weapons sale between American manufacturers and Ukraine of Model M107A1 sniper systems, ammunition and associated equipment...It's fired from the shoulder and tracks targets via infrared (heat signature). Instead of targeting the front or sides of tanks, which are thick with armor, the missile flies in an arc and hits the top of tank where the armor is weak..

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko defended the move in a Facebook post, thanking President Donald Trump for his support. Poroshenko further described the arms sale as "a transatlantic vaccination against the Russian virus of aggression." - https://www.newsweek.com/trump-tank-killing-missile-fight-russia-ukraine-759745

And as reported by abcnews.go.com om Dec. 23, 2020,

"Previously, as reported by ABC News – Breaking News, Latest News, Headlines & Videos om Dec. 23, 2020, "Trump admin approves new sale of anti-tank weapons to Ukraine.." The new package included Javelin anti-tank weapons, 150 missiles and two launchers, which came after a first sale, completed in March 2018, which included 210 Javelin missiles and 37 launch units.. "The Trump administration first approved the sale of Javelins to Ukraine in December 2017 -- a step that former President Barack Obama never took.... ..

Before that, "Russia's Putin praises Obama's missile defense decision" to "cancel a radar installation in the Czech Republic and ground-based interceptors planned for Poland," LA Times Sep 19, 2009

And those who protest NATO's overall spending of only about 3% of its GDP are opposing Trump. For contrary to being a Putin puppet as the Left prevaricates - and who were blaming him in Feb. 2020 for this invasion,

July 11, 2018 U.S. President Donald Trump told NATO leaders on Wednesday they should increase their defense spending to 4 percent of their country’s economic output, double the group’s current goal of two percent/

4/3/19
..nearly all 29 NATO members have increased their defense spending since Trump came to office, and at least 16 of the 29 are on track to meet their 2024 defense spending goals. Defense spending among 27 NATO allies has increased consistently between 2016 and 2018, with Hungary, Norway, Romania and Turkey making some of the biggest increases.

October 21, 2020 NATO spending has increased for the sixth consecutive year thanks to new contributions from allies, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in prepared remarks Wednesday...Canada and European countries' spending increased this year at a rate of 4.3 percent...Russia and China's aggressive behavior during Trump's term is one reason for the allies' increased spending.

Meanwhile, when procurement costs are taken into consideration (how much it cost for training and materials in respective countries relative to what they spend), then despite having far less to defend, the US military budget in 2019 was not larger than the next eleven countries. Rather it was smaller than the next three.

https://www.eurasiareview.com/11102021-debating-defense-budgets-why-military-purchasing-p

[Wuli]

Now then, will Trump support for Ukraine, get many Trump loyalists who have opposed aid to Ukraine, to flip in that direction as well. If so, that would suggest, their opposition to aid for Ukraine was never principled, just following what they believed to be Trump’s position.

I have said all along that many have opossed aid to Ukraine because they have framed that aid as a “Biden” policy, not a U.S. policy, just because Biden happened to be in the White House when Putin invaded. I have always believed that if Putin had invaded with Trump in the White House Trump’s response would have been greater and swifter than Biden’s has been, and more quickly giving Putin cause to question his own moves.

[babble-on]

I mean Trump literally said in so many words this week that he will not intervene on behalf of Nato members, so it’s not hard to see that he is just lying here, flat out as per usu.

[Eleutheria5]

You may not feel it, but you are being manipulated. Grow an imagination.

[Salohcin]

You terribly misread what Trump said. His point was that NATO countries need to increase their military spending. Trump wants to strengthen NATO, not destroy it.

[Eleutheria5]

Biden wants to spend a lot of money on Ukraine, and have them lose, and wring his hands and clutch his pearls, and then spend lots of money on Taiwan and have them lose, and wring his hands and clutch his pearls.

For those suffering from senility, Trump gets it. He was the first to give lethal aid to Ukraine, back in 2019, when newly-elected Zelensky convinced him that he was serious about fighting corruption (inter alia, he jailed an oligarchic supporter of his for fraud). They impeached him over it, because he asked him to look into Joe Biden’s corrupt dealings in one instance.

Trump will end the conflict, and stop the Taiwan conflict before it starts, if it doesn’t start in the next nine months. Not by spending money, but by ending the conflict on mutually beneficial terms.

[UMCRevMom@aol.com]

“Biden wants to spend a lot of money on Ukraine, and have them lose, and wring his hands and clutch his pearls, and then spend lots of money on Taiwan and have them lose, and wring his hands and clutch his pearls.

For those suffering from senility, Trump gets it. He was the first to give lethal aid to Ukraine, back in 2019, when newly-elected Zelensky convinced him that he was serious about fighting corruption (inter alia, he jailed an oligarchic supporter of his for fraud).”

Great insight. Thank you for your comment.