Donald Trump Reveals The Unusual Way He Would Handle The War In Ukraine
As the world watches Russia invade Ukraine, many are looking to the leadership in America and beyond to respond to the acts of violence instigated by Russian President Vladimir Putin. While President Joe Biden has been vocal about his disapproval of Russia's invasion, former President Donald Trump's praise of Putin and previous dealings with Ukraine have raised quite a few eyebrows. Interestingly, the recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine has once again brought attention to a 2019 phone call that took place between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which Trump withheld millions of dollars in aid for the country while asking Zelenskyy to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, as NPR reported.
During Trump's presidency, he repeatedly praised Putin and Russia and even defended Russia's invasion and seizure of Crimea in 2014. "The people of Crimea, from what I've heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were," Trump told ABC News in 2016. Though the United States government did launch certain sanctions against Russia during Trump's presidency, according to CNN, he was constantly complaining about these punishments. What's more, while it was proven that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, Trump instead falsely claimed that it was Ukraine instead of Russia that interfered in the election.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Trump has continued a strange dialogue surrounding the conflict, leaving many to wonder how he might have handled the invasion if he had won the 2020 presidential election.
Trump claims that he would have forced a conflict between Russia and China
On Saturday, while speaking with Republican donors in New Orleans, former President Donald Trump made a strange comment regarding how he might handle the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In audio obtained by The Washington Post, Trump told the crowd that he would paint Chinese flags on American F-22 planes and bomb Russia, thus making it appear as though China had instigated the attack against Russia. According to Trump, the American people would "sit back and watch" as the two countries fought one another. It's still unclear whether Trump was joking or not.
During this same meeting, Trump seemed to also make it clear that he disagreed with NATO's actions since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and that, perhaps, if he had won the 2020 presidential election, Trump would have already gotten American troops more actively involved in stopping the conflict. "Are all of these nations going to stand by and watch perhaps millions of people be slaughtered as the onslaught continues?" Trump said at the meeting (via CBS News). "At what point do countries say, 'No, we can't take this massive crime against humanity?' We can't let it happen. We can't let it continue to happen."
Given his prior relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and leniency on the actions of Russia, it's unclear if Trump would actually get involved in stopping the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.