Trump Keeps Defending Russia

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/08/trump-fox-news-russia-ukraine/683924/?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_medium=social&utm_content=edit-promo

by theatlantic

14 comments

  1. This morning on *Fox & Friends*, Donald Trump “made clear that he does not understand the largest war in Europe, what started it, or why it continues,” Tom Nichols writes. “Worse, insofar as he does understand anything about Russia’s attempted conquest of Ukraine, he seems to have internalized old pro-Moscow talking points that even the Kremlin doesn’t bother with anymore.”

    “… The war, Trump said, started because of Crimea and NATO. Considering his commitment to being a ‘peace president,’ Trump was oddly eager to castigate his predecessors for being weak: Crimea, he said, was handed over to Russian President Vladimir Putin by Barack Obama ‘without a shot fired.’ (Should Obama have fired some? No one asked.) Crimea, you see, is a beautiful piece of real estate, surrounded by water—I have been to Crimea, and I can confirm the president’s evaluation here—and ‘Barack Hussein Obama gave it away.’ Putin, he said, got a ‘great deal’ from Obama, and took it ‘like candy from a baby.’

    “Trump did not explain how this putative land swindle led to Putin trying to seize all of Ukraine. But no matter; he quickly shifted to NATO, echoing the arguments of early Kremlin apologists and credulous Western intellectuals that Ukraine existed only as a ‘buffer’ with the West, and that Putin was acting to forestall Ukraine joining NATO. Russia was right, Trump said, not to want the Western ‘enemy’ on their border.

    “This might be the first time an American president has used Russia’s language to describe NATO as an enemy. Perhaps Trump was simply trying to see the other side’s point of view. He then added, however, that the war was sparked not only by NATO membership—which was not on the table anytime soon—but also by Ukrainian demands to return Crimea, which Trump felt were ‘very insulting’ to Russia.

    “Trump is a bit behind on his pro-Kremlin talking points. The Russians themselves long ago largely abandoned any such blather about NATO and Crimea. Putin claimed early on that Ukraine was infested with Nazis—in the case of Zelensky, apparently Jewish Nazis—and that even if it weren’t for NATO and Nazis, Ukraine is organically part of Russia and belongs under Kremlin rule. For three years, Putin has been slaughtering Ukrainian civilians to make the point that his Slavic brothers and sisters need to either accept that they are part of Russia, or die.”

    Read more: [https://theatln.tc/qt2SGASu](https://theatln.tc/qt2SGASu) 

  2. He has to otherwise he will never be able to step into a tall building after his presidency.

  4. He’s just doing his job, geeez, please give Demented Donny the Diddler a break!

  5. The war wasn’t even started by Ukraine wanting to join NATO. It was started because Ukraine wanted closer ties with the EU, and the better economic and social prospects other European former Soviet bloc countries were experiencing.

    It was *Euro*maiden, not *NATO*maiden.

    Edit: Also…. if Ukraine agrees not to join NATO, would Russia retreat to the pre-2014 borders? Not a chance.

  6. The russian Ukraine relationship mirrors a classic abusive relationship between people. Where the abuser goes nuts when the other person tries to leave. Keeps talking about how much they love the other person and claims the violence is the victims fault.

    That trump the rapist would side with the abuser in this is suprising to absolutely nobody.

  7. It’s the one thing that has been pretty much consistent throughout his political life and even before. He absolutely adores Putin. He’s his hero…

  12. Russia/Mossad assisted Musk to steal the election by hacking the equipment. The Heritage Foundation put bodies on the ground. It literally was a conspiracy.

  13. The perennial liar got taken in by persistent Russian lies.

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