Common MAGA argument is “Putin didn’t invade Ukraine under Trump. Which means he saw Trump as strong.” Nonsense. Under Trump he didn’t have to invade. Trump was doing more to remove the NATO threat than an invasion could.
Trump sought to draw down the US troop presence in NATO by a lot. Trump had plans to pull out of NATO altogether in term two. Trump regularly attacked NATO allies and sowed dissension.
(See the relations between Trump’s ambassador to Germany and the Germans.) And recall Trump was actually impeached for withholding vital aid from Ukraine.
Putin didn’t invade Ukraine under Trump because during his term of office Putin’s best plan for weakening NATO was Trump.
And don’t give me this nonsense Trump was strengthening NATO by forcing them to pay more line. He didn’t even understand how NATO financing worked. He attacked their spending as a way to attack the idea of the alliance. And the 2% commitment idea preexisted Trump by a lot.
And don’t say Trump was tough on Russia (he was the opposite). Or that he gave Ukraine weapons. That was done on the initiative of others and often against his protests behind the scenes.
In fact senior officials who wanted to be tough on Trump often tried to work those issues behind his back/without his involvement. No, for four years Trump was Putin’s wrecking ball for the Western Alliance—on many levels.
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