What did Trump say about the ongoing Russian aggression in Eastern Ukraine in his 1st term? Nothing. He never, in his entire 1st term in office acknowledged the fact that Russia was committing crimes in Ukraine.
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When asked about the conflict, he mentioned it in the same kinds of terms we're hearing from him now: the need for Zelensky to "make a deal". In 2019 Trump said Zelensky was “going to make a deal with President Putin” because “he’s a very reasonable guy”. trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-st...
feb 13, 2025, 7:11 pm • 32 3 • view
Also in Trump's 1st term, of course, Putin consolidated Russia's occupation of Crimea. This included the detention, torture, and disappearance of Crimeans who objected to annexation. Human Rights Watch noted the intensified persecution of Crimean Tatars: www.hrw.org/news/2017/11...
feb 13, 2025, 7:11 pm • 50 9 • view
Another notable act of aggression by Russia against Ukraine in this period was the creation of infrastructure designed to cement the annexation. This included the expansion of military facilities and, of course, the bridge over the Kerch strait, linking Crimea to Russia.
feb 13, 2025, 7:11 pm • 34 3 • view
Putin's projects to secure annexation through infrastructure was something that Trump *did* talk about - though not in those terms, of course. Did he take a strong line against these acts of aggression? No, he was impressed by them:
feb 13, 2025, 7:11 pm • 34 4 • view
In the same 2018 press conference in which he spoke approvingly about Russia developing military infrastructure in Crimea, he was asked whether he would recognise Crimea as Russian and described that as "an interesting question".
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Crimea was one of the main routes for invasion into the rest of Ukraine in Feb 2022; the current war could not have started as it did, or developed as it has, without the consolidation of Russian control over Crimea before 2022. Trump's inaction was a precondition for the war.
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Then, there's the issue of the Kerch Strait Crisis in November 2018, when the Russian navy seized a Ukrainian vessel and imprisoned its sailors. abcnews.go.com/Internationa...
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This was characterised by the State Department as an act of aggression by Russia, but their statement also called for restraint by Ukraine as well as Russia and for then-President Poroshenko and Putin to “engage directly to resolve this situation”.
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@skyview.social unroll
feb 14, 2025, 5:47 pm • 0 0 • view
This "both sides" wording appears to have been a response to instructions transmitted by then-National Security Advisor John Bolton, who claimed in his memoir to have blocked a stronger statement on the crisis, in order to reflect Trump’s views.
feb 13, 2025, 7:11 pm • 26 3 • view
Nikki Haley, then-US Ambassador to NATO, condemned it as “another reckless Russian escalation” and “a violation under international law". Bolton says in his memoir that he told Haley to moderate her comments to reflect Trump’s views, but she had ignored the instruction.
feb 13, 2025, 7:11 pm • 26 3 • view
Trump=satan
feb 13, 2025, 10:17 pm • 0 0 • view