The real reason Putin played a pussycat during the Trump presidency

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Christian Vanderbrouk
@UrbanAchievr
·
Feb 23, 2022
“Since [the end of NATO] is Putin's fondest wish, it makes far greater sense to suppose his relative restraint during the Trump presidency was a function of a reasonable expectation he might get everything he wanted without having to fire a shot.”

theweek.com
The real reason Putin played a pussycat during the Trump presidency

Christian Vanderbrouk
@UrbanAchievr
"In fact, Trump had privately indicated that he would seek to withdraw from NATO and to blow up the U.S. alliance with South Korea, should he win reelection...

“Yeah, the second term,” Trump had said. “We’ll do it in the second term.”
https://washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/07/13/book-excerpt-i-alone-can-fix-it/…
Image
7:56 AM · Feb 23, 2022

https://theweek.com/politics/1010470/the-real-reason-putin-played-a-pussycat-during-the-trump-presidency


Republicans have long had a toughness fetish. Going back to the early days of the Cold War, its flip side has been the insinuation that Democrats are weaklings ready to sell out the country to its enemies, with the GOP eager to serve proudly and unapologetically as America's lone defenders abroad.

No one should be surprised that the script has already been updated to account for recent distressing events on the border separating Russia and Ukraine.

Late last week, conservative talk-show host Hugh Hewitt observed in a tweet that "the tyrant Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014 and will do so again in 2022 but did not do so between 2017 and 2020." Without mentioning his name, Hewitt implied Putin became a pussycat because of Donald Trump's steadfast leadership as president.

But wait — wasn't Trump Putin's lapdog for the entirety of his presidency, famously refusing to say anything remotely critical about him and even siding with Putin's denial of Russian interference in the 2016 election against evidence provided by America's own intelligence services?

No doubt realizing the absurdity of the claim, National Review's Rich Lowry (and others) leapt in a few days later to add a layer of nuance to the assertion. It's not that Trump was tougher than President Biden, but that he was more erratic: "The sheer unpredictably of Trump, his anger at being defied or disrespected, his willingness to take the occasional big risk (the Soleimani strike), all had to make Putin frightened or wary of him in a way that he simply isn't of Joe Biden."

*snip*

[boston bean]

1. Short answer he was going to give it to him without a shot being fired.

[mopinko]

2. i wont be surprised if we find out

that there was a deal to hand over ukraine in the 2nd term.

[Irish_Dem]

5. With large cash bonus for Trump.

[mopinko]

22. and a tower in moscow.

[Irish_Dem]

23. Putin probably threw that in too.

[Rebl2]

19. No doubt

[at140]

3. Watch president Biden's speech at noon

We shall see how a tough president acts.

[Irish_Dem]

4. No wonder Trump fought so hard to overturn the election.

He knew there was a big pay day for him once he handed Ukraine to Putin.

[Scrivener7]

7. Definitely. And Putin thought he had enough of our legislators

in his pocket in addition to the sitting President. He thought our government belonged to him.

[Irish_Dem]

10. Over half of our Congress does belong to him.

(I am counting McConnell's two good friends in that number.)

And most of the Supreme Court.

And the media.

Putin invaded the US without firing a shot.

[BeyondGeography]

6. That second term would have been the end of us

And a lot of other things around the world. What’s freaky, to say the least, is the only thing that prevented it was a virus. He wins without COVID, hands down.

Hopefully, Putin taking off the mask and Trump’s cheerleading sobers up enough people to kill the re-run once and for all. But I’ve given up on common sense and better angels prevailing just because…

[Act_of_Reparation]

8. I think it is more complicated than that.

There are a few factors making now the ideal time for Putin's move. In addition to the domestic instability in the United States, there are several European leaders up for reelection this year, and Putin likely gambled they would not be inclined to suffer high petroleum and natural gas prices in the lead-up to those elections.

[Irish_Dem]

12. So the timing was financially motivated.

And the US being greatly weakened internally?

I am sure Putin and the oligarchs calculated how much money they would make on the invasion.

[Act_of_Reparation]

13. No, the timing gave Putin leverage he might not have otherwise had.

I don't think Putin or the oligarchs think there'd be any short-term profits from this little adventure. It has more to do with extorting European leaders into silence.

Let's say you're Macron. You're up for reelection this year. Your country gets most of its natural gas and petroleum from Russia, and then Russia signals their intent to attack Ukraine. If you take action against Russia, they will likely retaliate by disrupting your oil and natural gas supply. Prices will go up, and a fair number of workaday French, who might not have strong opinions on the Ukraine conflict, will get pissed and invariably blame you. You're a smart guy, and probably remember what happened to Jimmy Carter when the oil dried up in the United States all those years ago, so you might think twice before getting in Russia's way.

[Irish_Dem]

15. Got it. Thanks for the explanation. Makes a lot of sense.

Timing about not getting any push back from those leaders up for re-election.

People want cheap goods and services. They don't care how or why it is cheap.

[spanone]

9. He can never be allowed to hold office again.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

11. Putin would have marched in & Trump would have praised him as a genius

Just like he's doing now.

[wiggs]

14. There's something we aren't seeing that involves a global plan for alignments between

Trumpworld, Russia, SA, UAE, Turkey, Netanyahu, Qatar. Flynn, Prince, Bannon in there too. Maybe N Korea, Duterte.

Agree...they expected a second term and another four years to implement this kind of thing and loot everyone else in the meantime. Abramson was correct.

[DashOneBravo]

16. I can see not dealing with him being erratic

But I think there is a simple answer. They were scared of the DOD and the CIA.

They killed 200 Russians mercenaries in Syria using nothing but arty and air.

Also they started sending lethal aid to Ukraine with our anti-tank weapon system.

[The Magistrate]

17. The Sole Unpredictability Putin Had To Reckon With Regarding Trump, Ma'am

Was whether Trump was going to lick his boots or kiss his ass.

[Nevilledog]

18. Exactly, my dear.

[Bettie]

25. True and he'd have

got great amusement from TFG trying to do both at the same time.

[patphil]

20. Rich Lowry's comments are hilarious.

Putin frightened of Trump?
Now that's the most idiotic statement I've heard regarding the Trump/Putin relationship...ever!
It's actually the other way around.
Putin plays hardball, Trump plays wiffle ball...and poorly at that.

[ffr]

21. So that Putin could then repeat what Hitler failed to accomplish, European domination.

Holy Fuck! We need to stomp TFG, the GOP, Fox Noise, and GOP voters the fuck out in every election going forward. We're that close to WWIII.

[Boomerproud]

27. How do you propose to convince the cult to change their mind?

[llashram]

24. Putin played

on the erratic trump by making trump his puppet. Period. Why do you think the fascist trump started the "big lie"? Putin and trump had really big plans for our world. Putin is going ahead with his plans. The RW still hopes to steal the elections upcoming and allow Putin to start pulling trump's strings, again.

[Mr.Bill]

26. Correct.

What we are seeing now is Plan B.

[Lonestarblue]

28. I hope our intelligence services are reviewing the classified documents Trump stole.

Did any of them relate to Russia or to internal assessments of what Putin was likely to do? You can be sure Trump has already shared them with Putin. I think Putin underestimated Biden and his ability to pull allies together, but these classified documents were created when Trump was president—Trump who refused to hear negative intelligence about Russia—and I hope did not give Putin national security information that he can now use to harm the US, most likely through cyber warfare.

[DENVERPOPS]

29. Countless things will surface re: Trump & Putin in the future..........

OR, maybe not if Trump, Russians/Putin, and Republicans in the capitol succeed in the future years.

Does anyone else think that Republicans are really acting weird????? The Republicans used to be the war mongering "hawks" against the commies, Russia, etc in the past 70 years???????????

WASF

[calimary]

30. Reason #1 why we should start referring to the orange one as Putin's puppydog.

Putin’s Pet. We should almost literally LAMINATE the two together - Putin and trump. PutinTrump. TrumPutin.

Pick a side. Either way it’s accurate and truthful.

[gratuitous]

31. "We'll do it in the second term"

Anyone remember if withdrawing from NATO and ending our alliance with South Korea were part of the former guy's stump speech during 2020? I'm going to go out on a limb and say, "No." Anyone remember if the former guy was asked by our liberal media overlords about his alienation of NATO and South Korea? I'll go out on that same limb, even though the damage to our alliances was pretty obvious to anyone who was paying the least attention during the former guy's term.

If he runs in 2024, how many times will he be asked about our historic allies, and what he plans to do to strengthen those ties that doesn't include those countries paying him off? I'll put the over/under at 1 and take the under.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

32. The idea that Trump in office would in any way prevent Putin

doing a thing Trump praises Putin for doing is the kind of blatant lack of logic that defines, disgraces, and ought to destroy today's Republican party.