Former President Donald Trump said that Ukraine’s membership in the NATO alliance was a major provocation for Moscow and part of the reason Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of the country. Trump’s remarks were echoed by Nigel Farage, a right-wing populist in the UK.
In an interview on the All-In Podcast, Trump said he was willing to take NATO expansion to Ukraine off the table. “For 20 years, I heard that NATO, if Ukraine goes into NATO, It’s a real problem for Russia. I’ve heard that for a long time, and I think that’s really why this war started,” he said. Trump argued that President Biden provoked the war by pledging Ukraine would join NATO.
Trump additionally expressed that the war in Ukraine would not have happened under his administration because he would have kept oil prices lower, and Putin has relied on high energy costs to fuel his war machine.
Nigel Farage, leader of the populist Reform UK party, expressed a similar view of the war in an interview with BBC. “I stood up in the European parliament in 2014 and I said: ‘There will be a war in Ukraine.’ Why did I say that?” he explained. “It was obvious to me that the ever-eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union was giving this man a reason… to say: ‘They’re coming for us again,’ and to go to war.”
Farage added, “We provoked this war. Of course, it’s [Putin’s] fault, he’s used what we’ve done as an excuse.” His Reform UK party could potentially lead the opposition against a Labor government after July’s election.
However, Trump, who is often labeled a critic of the war in Ukraine, did endorse escalations by America’s European partners. When answering a host’s question, the former president pledged not to put American soldiers in Ukraine but went on to say it was a different issue for France and Germany, whom he said should be more involved in the conflict.
“It’s different for France. You know they’re neighbors, more or less we have an ocean in between [the US and Ukraine.] It’s different for Germany, although Germany’s much less involved than they should be.” Trump continued, “One of the things I think is so unfair. I think it’s terrible that we’re giving probably we’re at least a hundred billion dollars more than Europe.”
For several weeks, French President Emmanuel Macron has been working with Kiev on a plan that will see French troops as well as forces from other NATO countries deployed to Ukraine to train Ukrainian soldiers. Russia has warned the troops will become targets.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
If Trump stays on message, he will clean Biden's clock.
I hope he acts as if Joe is insignificant and not even in the room. Since there will be no back and forth, it should be possible.
You need or want him? I don't want either. Nina Turner's statement about both men during the campaign in 2020 was spot on.
I don't want him, but I want Biden gone, and since Father Time and the Grim Reaper refuse to accommodate me, then Trump is the only tool left to get it done. I want Trump, with a divided Senate 51-49 D, and a divided House with perhaps a 3 seat R advantage. That way, NOTHING will ever get done; and that's when the US govt is the least harmful – when they do nothing.
If NATO instigated the war, the US specifically, which I agree with, then leaving Ukraine neutral and not part of NATO eliminates any “threat” France or Germany should perceive. I don’t, however, agree that they are honest brokers about threats.
Max Blumenthal & @MaxBlumenthal
Jun 22
A candid description of the Western plan for Russia, which mirrors the sectarian agenda it achieved in the former Yugoslavia
Glenn Diesen ® @Glenn_Diesen
Jun 20
At the Swiss "peace summit", the president of Poland called for "decolonizing" Russia by breaking it up into 200
smaller ethnic states
– A "peace summit" that did not invite Russia or discuss
Russian security concerns or peace. Instead it was a forum to rally support for more war
Russia was acutely aware of what the message was.
Zelensky and Stoltenberg said the same thing.
Yes, and a while ago … but watch the CNNMSNBCETC go gaga that T-rump could say such a silly thing …
Not to mention the retired Generals making a living off FOX News stipends.
Talking Heads are everywhere.
However, Trump, who is often labeled a critic of the war in Ukraine, did endorse escalations by America’s European partners.
“One of the things I think is so unfair. I think it’s terrible that we’re giving probably we’re at least a hundred billion dollars more than Europe.”
The Don always has his priorities in order.
If memory serves me correctly, Mr.Drumpf had Javelin anti-tank missiles shipped to Kiev. He withdrew the U.S. from two treaties that kept us safe (both U.S. and Russia): Open Skies, INF.
MICIMATT's business model requires credible enemies and conflict to justify the conversion of 99.9% class "excess" monies into 0.1% profits.
"Terror" served for a while but it wears off and has other undesirable characteristics … we needed real enemies like in the Cold War, so they have worked and worked on Russia and China (Ukraine and Taiwan and many other issues) to provoke them to the point they will take steps.
If you want to watch a clear and concise history/timeline of what the US has been doing regarding Russia, watch Tucker Carlson's interview "Jeffrey Sachs: The Untold History of the Cold War, CIA Coups Around the World, and COVID's Origin" on YT. Two weeks before Russia invaded the Ukraine, US Sect. of State, Anthony Blinken, told Russian Foreign Secretary Lavrov, that once the Ukraine was a member of NATO, it was non of Russia's business if NATO were to install tactical missiles in the Ukraine along Russia's border. I would ask Sect. Blinken if the US would allow China to make a similar military pact with Mexico and station tactical missiles on Mexico's border with the US. Russia can not tolerate the Ukraine being in NATO. Piers Morgan had a lengthy interview with Jeffrey Sachs but didn't cut him off like he does most guests. Some element within the Deep State are probably wanting to lower the heat because the next escalation is nuclear.
Professor Sachs is a marvel.
It's annoying that mathematically, when idiots are wrong 99.9% of the time, it means they're spot-on 0.1% of the time.
At least we can reset the counter and immediately discount the next 999 things Trump claims.
Trump is all over the place, inconsistent, and ignorant, but in this statement, he is completely correct. Just like a stopped clock; right twice per day. The rest of his screed is just another version of the same incomprehensible, lunatic gibberish that his equally odious, inconsistent and ignorant doppelganger Biden spews.
Trump knows who is pulling the strings. But why is he still paying politics? He is suppose to be the “outsider”. I liked to rude, crude and a womanizer from 2016. At least he was entertaining.
Trump is for the war in Ukraine as long as the US stays out of it and says France, Germany and other European Nations should act like the USA and wage war in Europe.
Trump won't say the US should stay out of the ME. The nations there are also miles away from the US and separated by an ocean. He has lots of support from AIPAC and other Zionist groups and ties to the Religious Right.
Mr. Transactional has a hotel in Moskow in the back of his mind.