Trump’s border wall has been breached more than 3,000 times by smugglers, CBP records show By Nick Miroff March 02 at 2:32 PM EST NACO, Arizona — Mexican smuggling gangs have sawed through new segments of border wall 3,272 times over the past three years, according to unpublished U.S. Customs and Border Protection maintenance records obtained by The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act. The government spent $2.6 million to repair the breaches during the 2019 to 2021 fiscal years, the CBP records show. While the agency has acknowledged that smugglers are able to hack through the new barriers built by the Trump administration, the maintenance records show damage has been more widespread than previously known, pointing to the structure’s limitations as an impediment to illegal crossings. Smuggling gangs typically cut the barrier with inexpensive power tools widely available at retail hardware stores, including angle grinders and demolition saws. Once the 18-to-30-foot-tall bollards are severed near the ground, their only remaining point of attachment is at the top of the structure, leaving the steel beam dangling in the air. It easily swings open with a push, creating a gap wide enough for people and narcotics to pass through. A spokesman for CBP, Luis Miranda, said effective border security “requires a variety of resources and efforts, infrastructure, technology, and personnel.” “No structure is impenetrable, so we will continue to work to focus resources on modern, effective border management measures to improve safety and security,” Miranda said in a statement. Along one 25-mile segment of new border wall between Naco and Douglas, Ariz., The Post recently counted 71 bollards with visible repairs and welds. In most instances, crews repaired the breaches using a sleeve-like steel coupler, referred to as a “boot,” to patch over the hole.
continues.....
Meanwhile trashbag GOP reps in congress were screaming at Biden to "Build The Wall" during his SOTU because that's what resonates w/ their base.
Trump’s border wall has been breached more than 3,000 times by smugglers, CBP records show By Nick Miroff March 02 at 2:32 PM EST NACO, Arizona — Mexican smuggling gangs have sawed through new segments of border wall 3,272 times over the past three years, according to unpublished U.S. Customs and Border Protection maintenance records obtained by The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act. The government spent $2.6 million to repair the breaches during the 2019 to 2021 fiscal years, the CBP records show. While the agency has acknowledged that smugglers are able to hack through the new barriers built by the Trump administration, the maintenance records show damage has been more widespread than previously known, pointing to the structure’s limitations as an impediment to illegal crossings. Smuggling gangs typically cut the barrier with inexpensive power tools widely available at retail hardware stores, including angle grinders and demolition saws. Once the 18-to-30-foot-tall bollards are severed near the ground, their only remaining point of attachment is at the top of the structure, leaving the steel beam dangling in the air. It easily swings open with a push, creating a gap wide enough for people and narcotics to pass through. A spokesman for CBP, Luis Miranda, said effective border security “requires a variety of resources and efforts, infrastructure, technology, and personnel.” “No structure is impenetrable, so we will continue to work to focus resources on modern, effective border management measures to improve safety and security,” Miranda said in a statement. Along one 25-mile segment of new border wall between Naco and Douglas, Ariz., The Post recently counted 71 bollards with visible repairs and welds. In most instances, crews repaired the breaches using a sleeve-like steel coupler, referred to as a “boot,” to patch over the hole.
continues.....
Meanwhile trashbag GOP reps in congress were screaming at Biden to "Build The Wall" during his SOTU because that's what resonates w/ their base.
Trump’s border wall has been breached more than 3,000 times by smugglers, CBP records show By Nick Miroff March 02 at 2:32 PM EST NACO, Arizona — Mexican smuggling gangs have sawed through new segments of border wall 3,272 times over the past three years, according to unpublished U.S. Customs and Border Protection maintenance records obtained by The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act. The government spent $2.6 million to repair the breaches during the 2019 to 2021 fiscal years, the CBP records show. While the agency has acknowledged that smugglers are able to hack through the new barriers built by the Trump administration, the maintenance records show damage has been more widespread than previously known, pointing to the structure’s limitations as an impediment to illegal crossings. Smuggling gangs typically cut the barrier with inexpensive power tools widely available at retail hardware stores, including angle grinders and demolition saws. Once the 18-to-30-foot-tall bollards are severed near the ground, their only remaining point of attachment is at the top of the structure, leaving the steel beam dangling in the air. It easily swings open with a push, creating a gap wide enough for people and narcotics to pass through. A spokesman for CBP, Luis Miranda, said effective border security “requires a variety of resources and efforts, infrastructure, technology, and personnel.” “No structure is impenetrable, so we will continue to work to focus resources on modern, effective border management measures to improve safety and security,” Miranda said in a statement. Along one 25-mile segment of new border wall between Naco and Douglas, Ariz., The Post recently counted 71 bollards with visible repairs and welds. In most instances, crews repaired the breaches using a sleeve-like steel coupler, referred to as a “boot,” to patch over the hole.
continues.....
Meanwhile trashbag GOP reps in congress were screaming at Biden to "Build The Wall" during his SOTU because that's what resonates w/ their base.
yikes. whoever has the most cash come primary time better have that on a constant loop on fox.
I feel like him not being on twitter actually benefits him because most people aren't subjected to his insane ramblings on a daily basis anymore. He still does it though
How smart indeed. Putin has played the world and is winning. Who is smarter for letting Putin control 10 percent of the world's oil supply? Putin or the United States(insert country here)? Putin has played us like a fiddle and is now reaping the rewards. Putin is a bad guy but that doesn't mean he isn't smart. That's fine if you want to call Trump and Putin besties but before Trump was around, how much did Obama let Putin get away with? Putin has been working up to this day for a very long time and the world has let him get away with it. We can't do much to Russia because he has amassed so much power, we would have to start World War 3 to stop him at this point. Seems pretty smart to me!
I know you all want to bash Trump for saying Putin is smart but you should consider it was more of a jab at Biden than anything.
"For four years, Democrats portrayed themselves as a party of Russia
hawks, in contrast to a president they saw as Putin’s lackey. But since
Biden came into office, his administration has stopped enforcing major
sanctions on Russia’s pipeline to Germany, held off on punishing Russian
hacks of critical infrastructure and now seeks to deter a Russian
invasion of Ukraine with threats alone.
Some might call that appeasement. Others might say Biden’s presidency so far has been a gift to Vladimir Putin."
Biden promised us that Putin would pay a price for interfering in the 2020 elections. Did that ever happen? Did it work? I would also say it is smart for Putin to keep pushing forward doing whatever he wants when other world leaders threaten him but don't follow through successfully.
Let's not forget this tweet from 2020:
It was just a couple weeks ago that Biden told us he was going to put sanctions on Russia to stop them from invading Ukraine. It didn't work! Now Biden says it was only to slow them down.....
The world has gone into bed with a true dictator, not the pussy Trump dictator we've heard all about but a REAL dictator. The world has let this happen and let it happen long before Trump was around. The thing that Trump has over Biden is that Trump was unpredictable, for good and bad. Biden is totally predictable and Putin sees through that and is taking advantage. Sounds pretty smart to me! Sure, it is evil but so was Hitler and if you deny he was smart, you'd be a fool. You can be smart and evil at the same time.
Lastly, you do all realize that Trump says the things he says because he knows what your reaction will be? He's been doing that for years and you all still fall for it. That's why the Trump thread stays busier than the Biden thread. Trump craves attention, good and bad. If you choose to keep addressing him, he will never go away. You are the ones keeping him alive and energized. That and the Big Macs.....
How smart indeed. Putin has played the world and is winning. Who is smarter for letting Putin control 10 percent of the world's oil supply? Putin or the United States(insert country here)? Putin has played us like a fiddle and is now reaping the rewards. Putin is a bad guy but that doesn't mean he isn't smart. That's fine if you want to call Trump and Putin besties but before Trump was around, how much did Obama let Putin get away with? Putin has been working up to this day for a very long time and the world has let him get away with it. We can't do much to Russia because he has amassed so much power, we would have to start World War 3 to stop him at this point. Seems pretty smart to me!
I know you all want to bash Trump for saying Putin is smart but you should consider it was more of a jab at Biden than anything.
"For four years, Democrats portrayed themselves as a party of Russia
hawks, in contrast to a president they saw as Putin’s lackey. But since
Biden came into office, his administration has stopped enforcing major
sanctions on Russia’s pipeline to Germany, held off on punishing Russian
hacks of critical infrastructure and now seeks to deter a Russian
invasion of Ukraine with threats alone.
Some might call that appeasement. Others might say Biden’s presidency so far has been a gift to Vladimir Putin."
Biden promised us that Putin would pay a price for interfering in the 2020 elections. Did that ever happen? Did it work? I would also say it is smart for Putin to keep pushing forward doing whatever he wants when other world leaders threaten him but don't follow through successfully.
Let's not forget this tweet from 2020:
It was just a couple weeks ago that Biden told us he was going to put sanctions on Russia to stop them from invading Ukraine. It didn't work! Now Biden says it was only to slow them down.....
The world has gone into bed with a true dictator, not the pussy Trump dictator we've heard all about but a REAL dictator. The world has let this happen and let it happen long before Trump was around. The thing that Trump has over Biden is that Trump was unpredictable, for good and bad. Biden is totally predictable and Putin sees through that and is taking advantage. Sounds pretty smart to me! Sure, it is evil but so was Hitler and if you deny he was smart, you'd be a fool. You can be smart and evil at the same time.
Lastly, you do all realize that Trump says the things he says because he knows what your reaction will be? He's been doing that for years and you all still fall for it. That's why the Trump thread stays busier than the Biden thread. Trump craves attention, good and bad. If you choose to keep addressing him, he will never go away. You are the ones keeping him alive and energized. That and the Big Macs.....
sorry, but this is all nonsense. putin isn't winning. he's a pariah. if he tries anything further than ukraine he'll be blown to smithereens.
you make this all sound as if it's some simple game of checkers. obviously putin is smart; no one is denying that. you can't be a dictator and not have brains. but you have to be a brainless dolt to be a former president that is the enemy to that dictator and hand him and his country/troops morale boosting. of course it was a dig at biden. it doesn't matter what his intentions were. he's still a complete idiot.
many here have already acknowledged that putin has been planning this for more than one administration. and yes, obama let him get away with a lot. do you really want to poke the bear when it seems the bear is sleeping? but trump encouraged putin, threw the bear some bones, and even degraded the agencies meant to keep putin in check. traitor, anyone?
trump does not say the things he says because he knows our reaction. he's a narcissist. he hates negative feedback. he's not trolling us. don jr does that. eric does that (to an extent that his brain power will allow him to formulate one). but trump says the things he says for adoration. claiming otherwise shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how he operates.
the trump thread stays busier than the biden thread for the same reason a darwin thread stays busier than a cute kittie thread. a good president is a working, silent president. not a bombastic turd.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
How smart indeed. Putin has played the world and is winning. Who is smarter for letting Putin control 10 percent of the world's oil supply? Putin or the United States(insert country here)? Putin has played us like a fiddle and is now reaping the rewards. Putin is a bad guy but that doesn't mean he isn't smart. That's fine if you want to call Trump and Putin besties but before Trump was around, how much did Obama let Putin get away with? Putin has been working up to this day for a very long time and the world has let him get away with it. We can't do much to Russia because he has amassed so much power, we would have to start World War 3 to stop him at this point. Seems pretty smart to me!
I know you all want to bash Trump for saying Putin is smart but you should consider it was more of a jab at Biden than anything.
"For four years, Democrats portrayed themselves as a party of Russia
hawks, in contrast to a president they saw as Putin’s lackey. But since
Biden came into office, his administration has stopped enforcing major
sanctions on Russia’s pipeline to Germany, held off on punishing Russian
hacks of critical infrastructure and now seeks to deter a Russian
invasion of Ukraine with threats alone.
Some might call that appeasement. Others might say Biden’s presidency so far has been a gift to Vladimir Putin."
Biden promised us that Putin would pay a price for interfering in the 2020 elections. Did that ever happen? Did it work? I would also say it is smart for Putin to keep pushing forward doing whatever he wants when other world leaders threaten him but don't follow through successfully.
Let's not forget this tweet from 2020:
It was just a couple weeks ago that Biden told us he was going to put sanctions on Russia to stop them from invading Ukraine. It didn't work! Now Biden says it was only to slow them down.....
The world has gone into bed with a true dictator, not the pussy Trump dictator we've heard all about but a REAL dictator. The world has let this happen and let it happen long before Trump was around. The thing that Trump has over Biden is that Trump was unpredictable, for good and bad. Biden is totally predictable and Putin sees through that and is taking advantage. Sounds pretty smart to me! Sure, it is evil but so was Hitler and if you deny he was smart, you'd be a fool. You can be smart and evil at the same time.
Lastly, you do all realize that Trump says the things he says because he knows what your reaction will be? He's been doing that for years and you all still fall for it. That's why the Trump thread stays busier than the Biden thread. Trump craves attention, good and bad. If you choose to keep addressing him, he will never go away. You are the ones keeping him alive and energized. That and the Big Macs.....
sorry, but this is all nonsense. putin isn't winning. he's a pariah. if he tries anything further than ukraine he'll be blown to smithereens.
you make this all sound as if it's some simple game of checkers. obviously putin is smart; no one is denying that. you can't be a dictator and not have brains. but you have to be a brainless dolt to be a former president that is the enemy to that dictator and hand him and his country/troops morale boosting. of course it was a dig at biden. it doesn't matter what his intentions were. he's still a complete idiot.
many here have already acknowledged that putin has been planning this for more than one administration. and yes, obama let him get away with a lot. do you really want to poke the bear when it seems the bear is sleeping? but trump encouraged putin, threw the bear some bones, and even degraded the agencies meant to keep putin in check. traitor, anyone?
trump does not say the things he says because he knows our reaction. he's a narcissist. he hates negative feedback. he's not trolling us. don jr does that. eric does that (to an extent that his brain power will allow him to formulate one). but trump says the things he says for adoration. claiming otherwise shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how he operates.
the trump thread stays busier than the biden thread for the same reason a darwin thread stays busier than a cute kittie thread. a good president is a working, silent president. not a bombastic turd.
well said...
Remember the Thomas Nine !! (10/02/2018) The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago 2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy 2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE) 2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston 2020: Oakland, Oakland:2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana 2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville 2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Opinion | Why Didn’t Putin Invade Under Trump? It Wasn’t Personal.
Trump wanted to be friends with Putin. But it was his policies, not his friendship, that mattered.
Trump and Putin give a joint press conference in Helsinki in 2018. | Chris McGrath/Getty Images
Opinion by JESSICA PISANO
03/02/2022 04:30 AM EST
Jessica Pisano is an associate professor of politics at the New School for Social Research and an associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University.
Now that Russian President Vladimir Putin has launched a ground war against Ukraine that he apparently has been planning for years, many have wondered why he waited until now. After all, the four years of Donald Trump’s presidency were an ebb tide of American power and influence, and Trump himself frequently went out of his way not to antagonize the Russian leader.
Wouldn’t it have been easier for Putin to invade Ukraine when Trump was president? The United States had abdicated its traditional leadership role in global alliances and left much of the rest of the world open to expanded Chinese and Russian influence. Plus, NATO had already expanded eastward to Russia’s borders, and the Kremlin already controlled Crimea and had proxies in the Donbas.
Some American politicians and commentators on the political right have tried to answer the question by comparing the purported strength or weakness of President Joe Biden with that of Trump, alleging that Putin saw Trump as stronger than Biden, even though Putin’s own description of Trump suggested the opposite. But beyond personality, there’s a far more likely and logical explanation if you look at policy alignment between Russia and America during the two administrations: With Trump in office, Putin was already getting what he wanted. The election changed all that.
Consider where Trump and Biden stand on three key issue areas the Kremlin cares deeply about: NATO, political leadership in Ukraine and undermining democracy. Under Trump, there was little daylight between Russia and the United States on these issues.
Even as Trump’s vocal criticisms may have inadvertently strengthened the alliance, Trump worked to diminish the influence of NATO, reportedly planning to withdraw from it in his second term. As a candidate, Trump had even remarked that, “Maybe NATO will dissolve, and that’s OK, that’s not the worst thing in the world.”
And both while in office and since leaving it, Trump worked tirelessly to cast doubt on the legitimacy of American elections, going to great yet unsuccessful lengths to find evidence of fraud in the 2020 presidential contest. Trump makes assertions about American elections that echo the Kremlin’s, even reciting a trope about voting by “dead souls” that comes from 19th century Russian literature. At rallies Trump repeats the same claims he made the day of the January 6 attack on the Capitol: “You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.”
The truth is that during his administration, Trump’s policy alignment with Putin advanced the aims of Russia’s political elites, who could imagine that the United States was on their side. Their comfort with Trump was evident from the start; Americans may remember that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was warmly received in the White House and photographed in the Oval Office, while Russian parliament members toasted Trump’s electoral victory in 2016.
This comfort evaporated with the election of Biden. And for good reason: from the start, the Biden administration has been at odds with Putin on the issues Putin needs to care about to preserve his own rule. After Biden’s election, Russian political elites once again articulated profound, existential anxieties about a renewed United States projecting its power abroad. State television in Russia emphasized the Kremlin will not allow American influence in Ukraine, “regardless of the cost to us, and regardless of the cost to those responsible for it.”
The Biden White House has taken positions opposite those of the Trump administration on NATO. Biden has insisted on principles of state sovereignty, reaffirming and rebuilding the United States’ trans-Atlantic relationships, including strengthening NATO.
And Biden has worked to protect democracy. Unlike Trump, rather than questioning the integrity of contests his party lost, Biden has spoken forcefully about the close legal scrutiny and fairness of all the 2020 elections. And he has supported congressional efforts to protect the franchise in the United States.
In Trump, Putin had a fellow-traveler. Far from ensuring world peace, the Trump years instead offered Putin a useful pause he utilized to further military readiness and prime the Russian population for a hot war. Earlier this month, the Russian state adopted new standards for mass graves — not because of the coronavirus pandemic in Russia, but for situations that involve “urban destruction.”
This war is unfolding on Ukrainian territory, but the war is not only against Ukraine: much of Russia’s political leadership has come to see itself as at war with the Western world. In 2018, Kremlin mouthpiece Dmitry Kiselyov suggested on national television that Russia could reduce the United States to a “pile of radioactive ash.” The same year, describing the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in the U.K. as “only the beginning,” Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer warned that Russia was preparing for broad action against the West to create panic and paralyze Western countries, including a long-planned “special period” of political destabilization and violence in the West once war had begun and diplomats had been recalled.
Far from deterring Putin, Trump did the opposite. Thanks to Trump, Putin was able to take advantage of a period of apparent detente during which Trump actually pursued Putin’s own policies of weakening NATO and democracy and destabilizing the West — leaving Putin free to prepare his war against the free people of Ukraine and their democratically elected government.
You know what’s really disgusting? A few thousand ‘Muricans paying thousands of dollars, maybe even tens or hundreds of thousands to be in on the circle jerk to listen to POOTWH’s drivel. All just a big fucking joke. Deplorable. I can call them that, right? Or am I bigot?
NEW ORLEANS — Former president Donald Trump mused Saturday to the GOP’s top donors that the United States should label its F-22 planes with the Chinese flag and “bomb the s--t out of Russia.”
He also praised North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as “seriously tough,” claimed he was harder on Vladimir Putin than any other president, reiterated his false claims that he won the 2020 election, urged his party to be “tougher” on supposed election fraud, disparaged a range of prominent party opponents and called global warming “a great hoax” that could actually bring a welcome development: more waterfront property.
“And then we say, China did it, we didn’t do it, China did it, and then they start fighting with each other and we sit back and watch,” he said of labeling U.S. military planes with Chinese flags and bombing Russia, which was met with laughter from the crowd of donors, according to a recording of the speech obtained by The Washington Post.
You know what’s really disgusting? A few thousand ‘Muricans paying thousands of dollars, maybe even tens or hundreds of thousands to be in on the circle jerk to listen to POOTWH’s drivel. All just a big fucking joke. Deplorable. I can call them that, right? Or am I bigot?
NEW ORLEANS — Former president Donald Trump mused Saturday to the GOP’s top donors that the United States should label its F-22 planes with the Chinese flag and “bomb the s--t out of Russia.”
He also praised North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as “seriously tough,” claimed he was harder on Vladimir Putin than any other president, reiterated his false claims that he won the 2020 election, urged his party to be “tougher” on supposed election fraud, disparaged a range of prominent party opponents and called global warming “a great hoax” that could actually bring a welcome development: more waterfront property.
“And then we say, China did it, we didn’t do it, China did it, and then they start fighting with each other and we sit back and watch,” he said of labeling U.S. military planes with Chinese flags and bombing Russia, which was met with laughter from the crowd of donors, according to a recording of the speech obtained by The Washington Post.
Comments
#HillaryWasRight
It's right in front of us.
Arrest somebody FFS.
www.headstonesband.com
Some might call that appeasement. Others might say Biden’s presidency so far has been a gift to Vladimir Putin."
https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/12/21/lake-so-biden-just-whos-appeasing-putin-now/
you make this all sound as if it's some simple game of checkers. obviously putin is smart; no one is denying that. you can't be a dictator and not have brains. but you have to be a brainless dolt to be a former president that is the enemy to that dictator and hand him and his country/troops morale boosting. of course it was a dig at biden. it doesn't matter what his intentions were. he's still a complete idiot.
many here have already acknowledged that putin has been planning this for more than one administration. and yes, obama let him get away with a lot. do you really want to poke the bear when it seems the bear is sleeping? but trump encouraged putin, threw the bear some bones, and even degraded the agencies meant to keep putin in check. traitor, anyone?
trump does not say the things he says because he knows our reaction. he's a narcissist. he hates negative feedback. he's not trolling us. don jr does that. eric does that (to an extent that his brain power will allow him to formulate one). but trump says the things he says for adoration. claiming otherwise shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how he operates.
the trump thread stays busier than the biden thread for the same reason a darwin thread stays busier than a cute kittie thread. a good president is a working, silent president. not a bombastic turd.
www.headstonesband.com
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
In addition to this:
John Bolton says Trump 'barely knew where Ukraine was' and complained about his own administration's sanctions against Russia
https://www.businessinsider.com/john-bolton-trump-newsmax-barely-knew-where-ukraine-was-video-2022-3There's this (but of course none of it matters to Trump supporters who are just blinded by their cult of personality)
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/02/putin-invade-ukraine-trump-00012897
Opinion | Why Didn’t Putin Invade Under Trump? It Wasn’t Personal.
Trump wanted to be friends with Putin. But it was his policies, not his friendship, that mattered.
Trump and Putin give a joint press conference in Helsinki in 2018. | Chris McGrath/Getty Images
Opinion by JESSICA PISANO
03/02/2022 04:30 AM EST
Jessica Pisano is an associate professor of politics at the New School for Social Research and an associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University.
Now that Russian President Vladimir Putin has launched a ground war against Ukraine that he apparently has been planning for years, many have wondered why he waited until now. After all, the four years of Donald Trump’s presidency were an ebb tide of American power and influence, and Trump himself frequently went out of his way not to antagonize the Russian leader.
Wouldn’t it have been easier for Putin to invade Ukraine when Trump was president? The United States had abdicated its traditional leadership role in global alliances and left much of the rest of the world open to expanded Chinese and Russian influence. Plus, NATO had already expanded eastward to Russia’s borders, and the Kremlin already controlled Crimea and had proxies in the Donbas.
Some American politicians and commentators on the political right have tried to answer the question by comparing the purported strength or weakness of President Joe Biden with that of Trump, alleging that Putin saw Trump as stronger than Biden, even though Putin’s own description of Trump suggested the opposite. But beyond personality, there’s a far more likely and logical explanation if you look at policy alignment between Russia and America during the two administrations: With Trump in office, Putin was already getting what he wanted. The election changed all that.
Consider where Trump and Biden stand on three key issue areas the Kremlin cares deeply about: NATO, political leadership in Ukraine and undermining democracy. Under Trump, there was little daylight between Russia and the United States on these issues.
Even as Trump’s vocal criticisms may have inadvertently strengthened the alliance, Trump worked to diminish the influence of NATO, reportedly planning to withdraw from it in his second term. As a candidate, Trump had even remarked that, “Maybe NATO will dissolve, and that’s OK, that’s not the worst thing in the world.”
Trump also broke with longstanding bipartisan support of Ukraine. During the Trump administration’s first year, Volodymyr Zelenskyy was still a showman whose comedy troupe performed patriotic musical numbers with lyrics like “There’s fog over Brussels and frost in Washington” and used a MeToo leitmotif comparing Ukraine’s treatment by Russia and the West to a sexual assault. When Zelenskyy beat an incumbent president in a landslide, Trump actually withheld military aid to Ukraine, sending personal emissaries to Kyiv to try to pressure and undermine Zelenskyy in the eyes of Ukrainians by asking him to “do us a favor, though.”
And both while in office and since leaving it, Trump worked tirelessly to cast doubt on the legitimacy of American elections, going to great yet unsuccessful lengths to find evidence of fraud in the 2020 presidential contest. Trump makes assertions about American elections that echo the Kremlin’s, even reciting a trope about voting by “dead souls” that comes from 19th century Russian literature. At rallies Trump repeats the same claims he made the day of the January 6 attack on the Capitol: “You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.”
The truth is that during his administration, Trump’s policy alignment with Putin advanced the aims of Russia’s political elites, who could imagine that the United States was on their side. Their comfort with Trump was evident from the start; Americans may remember that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was warmly received in the White House and photographed in the Oval Office, while Russian parliament members toasted Trump’s electoral victory in 2016.
This comfort evaporated with the election of Biden. And for good reason: from the start, the Biden administration has been at odds with Putin on the issues Putin needs to care about to preserve his own rule. After Biden’s election, Russian political elites once again articulated profound, existential anxieties about a renewed United States projecting its power abroad. State television in Russia emphasized the Kremlin will not allow American influence in Ukraine, “regardless of the cost to us, and regardless of the cost to those responsible for it.”
The Biden White House has taken positions opposite those of the Trump administration on NATO. Biden has insisted on principles of state sovereignty, reaffirming and rebuilding the United States’ trans-Atlantic relationships, including strengthening NATO.
Biden took meaningful steps to support Ukraine in defending itself. Far from undermining Ukraine’s democratically elected government, the Biden administration has tried to create roadblocks for the Kremlin by getting inside Putin’s decision cycle, declassifying and broadcasting intelligence about Russia’s plans to attack Ukraine. Biden exhausted diplomatic channels trying to come to a peaceful resolution and worked with allies to prepare a sanctions package in advance of a Russian invasion.
And Biden has worked to protect democracy. Unlike Trump, rather than questioning the integrity of contests his party lost, Biden has spoken forcefully about the close legal scrutiny and fairness of all the 2020 elections. And he has supported congressional efforts to protect the franchise in the United States.
In Trump, Putin had a fellow-traveler. Far from ensuring world peace, the Trump years instead offered Putin a useful pause he utilized to further military readiness and prime the Russian population for a hot war. Earlier this month, the Russian state adopted new standards for mass graves — not because of the coronavirus pandemic in Russia, but for situations that involve “urban destruction.”
This war is unfolding on Ukrainian territory, but the war is not only against Ukraine: much of Russia’s political leadership has come to see itself as at war with the Western world. In 2018, Kremlin mouthpiece Dmitry Kiselyov suggested on national television that Russia could reduce the United States to a “pile of radioactive ash.” The same year, describing the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in the U.K. as “only the beginning,” Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer warned that Russia was preparing for broad action against the West to create panic and paralyze Western countries, including a long-planned “special period” of political destabilization and violence in the West once war had begun and diplomats had been recalled.
Far from deterring Putin, Trump did the opposite. Thanks to Trump, Putin was able to take advantage of a period of apparent detente during which Trump actually pursued Putin’s own policies of weakening NATO and democracy and destabilizing the West — leaving Putin free to prepare his war against the free people of Ukraine and their democratically elected government.
Imagine defending the guy who said those things.
Deplorable.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Color me shocked.
NEW ORLEANS — Former president Donald Trump mused Saturday to the GOP’s top donors that the United States should label its F-22 planes with the Chinese flag and “bomb the s--t out of Russia.”
He also praised North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as “seriously tough,” claimed he was harder on Vladimir Putin than any other president, reiterated his false claims that he won the 2020 election, urged his party to be “tougher” on supposed election fraud, disparaged a range of prominent party opponents and called global warming “a great hoax” that could actually bring a welcome development: more waterfront property.
“And then we say, China did it, we didn’t do it, China did it, and then they start fighting with each other and we sit back and watch,” he said of labeling U.S. military planes with Chinese flags and bombing Russia, which was met with laughter from the crowd of donors, according to a recording of the speech obtained by The Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/03/06/trump-focuses-foreign-policy-speech-gops-top-donors/
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Jesus what an idiot. His capitalization is insane.
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
www.headstonesband.com