Russian President Vladimir Putin with Donald Trump, Helsinki, July 16, 2018

US Election 2024: Trump’s Hate-Filled New York Rally “Shook Me To My Core”

US Election 2024: What Would A Trump Victory Mean For The World?

US officials have detailed how Donald Trump bowed down to Vladimir Putin over Ukraine in 2016-2017, enabling the Russian leader to pursue his “hybrid war” to break up the neighboring country.

The discussions followed Russia’s support of Trump’s campaign for the Presidency but predated his 2019 blackmail of Ukraine, freezing military aid because the Zelenskiy Government would not publicly spread disinformation about Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden.

The officials describe a key moment at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany in July 2017, with the first face-to-face meeting between the two men.

Putin had summoned Trump from the summit dinner for a private conversation. Only interpreters were present. After the encounter, Trump took his translator’s notes and told him not to discuss the meeting with anyone.

But US officials learned that Putin had disparaged Ukraine as a corrupt, fabricated country. He said Russia, which had seized Crimea in 2014 and supported the efforts of separatists to split the country, had every right to exert its influence.

Trump asked Putin, “What do you think?”, about the Administration’s consideration of giving weapons to Ukraine. Putin replied that it would be “a mistake”. He played to Trump’s perpetual paranoia about getting ripped off: Whatever America gave the Ukrainians, they would ask for more.

Dismissing the talking points drawn up by advisors, Trump never pushed back.

The seeds of Putin’s manipulations continue to bear fruit in 2024. At a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last month, the day after Zelenskiy visited the state, Trump sneered, “Every time he comes into the country, he walks away with $60 billion.”

The candidate added his derision that Zelenskiy favored Trump’s opponent Kamala Harris and the Democrats, “He wants them to win this election so badly.”

Russia Prepares The Ground

As Russia cooperated with the Trump campaign in 2016, hacking and disseminating the e-mails of the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s staff, Trump campaign officials pushed the disinformation that Ukraine carried out the hack.

Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort — who would be forced to resign and later sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison over financial crimes connected with his consultancy for pro-Kremlin politicians and oligarchs — pushed the narrative of Russian intelligence operative Konstantin Kilimnik.

In October, Ukrainian-born businessman Lev Parnas told Trump that corruption in Ukraine was a “way of life” with billionaire businessman and philanthropist George Soros spread money to bolster the Democratic Party’s influence.

The following June, Trump told Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko that he had heard from “a Ukrainian friend” that Ukraine was a corrupt country. He added that Crimea was actually part of Russia.

In their first call of Trump’s Presidency on January 28, 2017, Putin got his opportunity when Trump asked for his opinion of the country.

Reinforcing Trump’s prejudice, Putin gave an extended monologue about corruption in Ukraine. Mr. Trump was guarded in his response, but he acknowledged that Russia’s antagonism towards Ukraine was an obstacle to his goal of improving relations with Moscow.

Later that day, Trump shut down German Chancellor Angela Merkel when she explained how it was essential for US-European support to continue in the blunting of Russian aggression in Ukraine. Otherwise, there would be further destabilization in Eastern Europe.

Trump said only, “Thank you very much, and goodbye.”

As Trump tried to save himself from his campaign’s cooperation with Russia, Putin gave him the lifeline tht the “Ukrainian government adopted a unilateral position in favor of one candidate”, funding the Clinton camp.

Trump seized the falsehood that the Democratic National Committee’s server was linked to Ukraine. At a May 2017 meeting with the visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, he speculated about a connection between Ukraine and Clinton, and put question after question to Lavrov about ties between Ukrainian officials and Democrats.

A Brief Interlude

After the Hamburg meeting in July 2017, there was a brief respite from the Trump-Putin agreement for Ukraine. The Kremlin paused its direct approach, apparently assessing that it was spurring a backlash from American agencies and legislators

Indeed, the Pentagon provided the Ukrainian military with a limited number of Javelin anti=tank missiles. The CIA stepped up operations to counter Moscow. And Trump, facing a rebellion from Congressional Republicans, reluctantly signed a bill imposing sanctions on the Russians.

But it was only a pause in Trump’s anti-Ukraine animus. On July 25, 2017, he used Twitter to prod Attorney General Jeff Sessions into investigation of Ukraine, tagging his friend and Fox TV polemicist Sean Hannity:

By mid-2019, Trump’s disinformation was entrenched among many Republicans in Congress, particularly in the House. In June, he effectively blackmailed Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy with the demand for the smearing of Joe Biden.

The plan came unstuck when a whistleblower revealed Trump’s conversation with Zelenskiy. In December, the House impeached Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. He was saved from conviction the following month by the Republican majority in the Senate.

“Those Cities Are Gone”

In the Presidential campaign, Trump has continued to threaten Ukraine’s resistance of the Russian invasion by linking it to his character assassination of Joe Biden. He said at a July 2023 rally that Congress should not approve any military assistance “until the FBI, DOJ and IRS hand over every scrap of evidence they have on the Biden crime family’s corrupt business dealings”.

The attacks spurred a six-month blockade of aid by Trumpists in the House. It only ended in April 2024 when Trump dropped his opposition to the $60.8 billion package.

His tactical retreat did not end the verbal assault on the Zelenskiy Government. Instead, he has reinforced Kremlin political warfare by declared that Zelenskiy should have capitulated to Putin.

“Those cities are gone, they’re gone, and we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refused to make a deal,” he told a rally in North Carolina.

Ukraine is gone, it’s not Ukraine anymore. You can never replace those cities and towns and you can never replace the dead people, so many dead people.

If we made a bad deal, it would have been much better.

COVID Vaccines and Phone Calls for Vladimir

The tale of Trump’s accessory role in Putin’s campaign against Ukraine has been accompanied by other revelations of favors for the Kremlin.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, amid a shortage of medical resources, Trump sent coveted tests to Putin for his personal use.

The Russian committed Trump to secrecy, saying, “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me.”

After Trump left the White House, Putin continued the manipulation with at least seven phone calls through early 2024.

Asked by Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait if the claim was true, Trump answered, “I don’t comment on that”.

He insisted, “If I did, it’s a smart thing” for the US.