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Why Is Trump Trying to Make Ukraine Lose? The former president isn’t in office—but is still dictating U.S. policy.

Why Is Trump Trying to Make Ukraine Lose?

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/02/one-global-issue-trump-cares-about/677592/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK39GAO7kz83gC6pI5QIATVRU

The former president isn’t in office—but is still dictating U.S. policy.

Why Is Trump Trying to Make Ukraine Lose?

Donald Trump, who is not the president, is using a minority of Republicans to block aid to Ukraine, to undermine the actual president’s foreign policy, and to weaken American power and credibility.

45 comments

FuglyDuck

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Because Putin owns him. I thought that was obvious.

lennybird

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Indeed I wish reporters wouldn't dance around the obvious.

Asafum

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Man does literally everything that would help Putin.

"Conservatives": He's the toughest president ever on Russia! You have TDS! Ukraine are Nazis!

...I hate this reality

CitizenKong

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He had meetings with Putin without anyone else present while being president. That alone should disqualify him from holding any public office, let alone becoming president again.

TurtleJoe

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The article is more of an exploration of the consequences of the failure of the US to support Ukraine. Not sure why they went with that headline.

Diplomjodler3

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The article makes is all very obvious but the author is too cowardly to spell it the obvious conclusion: the only one who benefits from all this bullshit is Putin. The only rational explanation is that Trump is acting in Putin's interest against the US.

lostinasea

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At best it's because it's because he doesn't want Joe Biden and the Democrats to look good before the upcoming election. At worst it's because he's Putin's bitch doing whatever his master says. Personally, I believe he's a piece of shit traitor and so too are all the Republicans that follow and listen to him.

Buffalox

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There have been so many examples of Trump protecting and sweet talking Russia and Putin, and he has been surrounded by Russians in all kinds of situations, financial and his security, that there is no reason to believe there are 2 options here. Trump is a traitor to USA, pure and simple.

ghostdoggtv

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Smells like all Republicans are traitors

silence7

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There are a number who aren't, like Liz Cheney. It's possible to disagree almost completely with somebody on policy, and still recognize that they're not a traitor.

Not that the rest of the Republican party accepts them or will allow them to win a primary anymore.

grue

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Do Republicans who got kicked out of the party still count, though?

ghostdoggtv

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Right, but that is what it smells like.

YarHarSuperstar

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Exactly, they are no longer the same thing. Maybe it's finally time to realize there are more than two options.

silence7

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If you're a longstanding Republican and looking for another home, that's not a bad idea. If you want the Republicans to lose the next election, you need to actively vote for a Democrat. These three scenarios show why:

Scenario 1:

D - 9 votes

R - 10 votes

T - 0 votes

Republican wins

Scenario 2:

D - 9 votes

R - 9 votes

T - 1 vote

Tied election, decided by a coin toss

Scenario 3:

D - 10 votes

R - 9 votes

T - 0 votes

Democrat wins

UnderpantsWeevil

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I mean, that line of reasoning can get a bit dicey. Given that they're in the electoral majority, I think that technically makes the Democrats traitors.

ghostdoggtv

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Your "given" is false.

I'll grant you this - Republican leadership are all traitors.

vaultdweller013

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The Nazis were traitor to the German nation, didnt matter that they were the majority.

UnderpantsWeevil

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The Nazis were a nationalist movement with enormous support within the German state. Who were they betraying, exactly?

fox2263

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So Trump is the deep state

TheGiantKorean

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He's just taking orders from his boss.

Coach

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Because a vote for R is a vote for Russia.

Buffalox

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Question is why is he allowed to dictate policy?

silence7

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Republicans control a majority of the House of Representatives, giving them the power to block spending. They do what he says.

snooggums

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Why does the article focus on the small minority of Republicans when the rest of the Republicans are complicit in blocking the aid too? Only a few Republicans need to vote in favor of the aid to pass.

originalucifer

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this is why all republicans are bastard fascists. they vote in lock-step regardless of literally anything.

snooggums

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It is unfortunate that All Republicsns Are Bastards (ARAB) wouldn't be a good acronym, because that would have dovetailed nicely with ACAB.

dhork

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How about All Neoconservatives Are Losers?

snooggums

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Nice!

billiam0202

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All Conservatives Are Bastards.

RedditReject

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It has to be brought to a vote, which is the responsibility of the speaker of the house, who is a Republican. There is a way around that, but I think it would take more than just a few Republicans

chonglibloodsport

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That’s the proximate cause. The ultimate cause is that the Republicans stand no chance if they alienate Trump’s base. Many of them would prefer it if he went away but they can’t make it happen.

Buffalox

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AFAIK Democrats had the option to elect a moderate Republican as speaker, but instead they allowed Johnson to be elected. So Democrats could as I see it, have prevented the shitshow the House is now.
It's allowed because Democrats failed to prevent it. And instead allowed the MAGA crowd to control the House with their majority among Republicans.

silence7

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I don't believe there was some moderate Republican who would have gone along with this

Buffalox

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OK, maybe I misunderstood, but I'm pretty sure there were Republicans who aired the idea, and Democrats shot it down immediately.
But maybe it was just media talk IDK?

silence7

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It was pretty much media talk. The Republican Party purged their moderates during the 2022 primary

dhork

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There was an interesting news conference with Hakeem Jeffries yesterday where he said that its possible that Democrats might vote to save Johnson if there is a vote to vacate the chair due to putting the Ukraine bill on the floor. Jeffries said specifically its because Johnson hasn't reneged on any promises yet. It's clear that Democrats didn't trust Kevin as far as they could throw him. But they are signaling to Johnson that he might be protected if he did what they wanted.

To be fair, I think a majority of Republicans also want the Ukraine/Israel deal, too. It's just the lunatic fringe of the party willing to abandon Ukraine. (I think we know why.)

Edit: found it

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4498643-jeffries-declines-to-take-position-on-saving-speaker-from-conservative-coup/

The headline says "declines to take a position", but since his position on McCarthy was "Hell No", this is still better for Johnson.

Also:

Jeffries Suggests Democrats Would Save Johnson From Removal Over Ukraine Aid https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/28/us/politics/hakeem-jeffries-mike-johnson.html

That one has more of the quotes about Not Trusting Kevin

Buffalox

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Interesting, thanks.

norbert

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Doing anything to place blame on Democrats instead of the people who actually elected the shitgibbon I see.

sndmn

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Sure. And it's your wife's fault when you hit her.

UnderpantsWeevil

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Because the Republican House Reps listen to him and want to appeal to his political base. And because right-wing news media pushes a ton of Trump-friendly media advocating against further funding of the Ukraine War.

If you really get under the hood of this thing, the Republican positions is that Americans should be allied with Russia and at war with Ukraine because Ukrainians are gay woke liberal pedophile soyboys, while Russians are Based Western TradCath Chads. What gets even nuttier is that Republicans still despise China, and believe they need to ally with Russia against China in a war over the South Pacific.

Trump's not even really leading on this issue so much as echoing what the right-wing press regularly puts out. The real hand behind the throne is a cartel of industrialist billionaire hold-overs from the John Bircher movement of the 1960s, plus their larger network of talk radio, TV, newspaper, and social media talking heads parroting their message.

JeeBaiChow

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Just remember that turnip was willing to suspend aid for Ukraine unless zelenskyy made a particularly statement supporting his narrative.

originalucifer

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trump is a wanna-be fascist dictator. why is he wanting a foreign dictator to win? because hes fucking jealous. he admires putin

TropicalDingdong

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More broadly we should be asking how is this possible, since Trump is not the president.

It really highlights the weakness of Joe Biden.

silence7

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It highlights the fact that the Republicans control a majority of the House of Representatives. That's on the state legislators who gerrymandered the districts

naeap

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Yeah, because it typically works that way, that just someone has to say something with courage and the weak president is too afraid to say something against it...