Trump points to ‘cause’ of Ukraine conflict

By RT – 3 minutes read time

Russia’s intervention in Ukraine was triggered by the irresponsible and provocative rhetoric of US President Joe Biden and his administration about Kiev joining NATO, Donald Trump has said.

Trump, who is seeking a rematch with Biden for the presidency in November, made the comments during a conversation on foreign policy with ‘All-In’ podcast co-host David Sacks on Thursday.

“For 20 years, I heard that if Ukraine goes into NATO, it’s a real problem for Russia. I’ve heard that for a long time. And I think that’s really why this war started,” Trump said.

The Republican presidential candidate pointed out that there had been no talk about armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine when he was in the White House, but as soon as Biden replaced him, things began to deteriorate.

“I thought that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin may be – well, look, he’s a good negotiator, I thought he was going to be doing that for negotiation purposes,” Trump said. “Then all of a sudden, they attacked, and I said, ‘what’s going on here?’”

According to the former president, one of the key issues was the rhetoric coming out of the White House.

“Biden was saying all of the wrong things. And one of the wrong things he was saying [was] ‘no, Ukraine will go into NATO’,” Trump said.

Sacks pointed out that in January 2022 or thereabouts, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Moscow that Ukraine would join NATO and that Washington thought it was OK to put nuclear weapons there. “So no wonder the Russians hit the roof,” he noted.

“Well, let’s say you were running Russia. You wouldn’t be too happy,” Trump replied. “And that’s always been off the table. It’s always been understood that that was a no-no,” he added, addressing Kiev’s potential NATO membership.

NATO ‘moving into Asia’ – Putin

Floating the idea of Ukraine in NATO was “very provocative,” Trump said. “And now it’s even more provocative. I hear routinely they’re now talking about Ukraine entering NATO. And now I hear France wants to go in and fight. Well, I wish them a lot of luck!”

Putin has specifically pointed to Western statements about Ukraine’s possible membership in the US-led bloc as a security threat Moscow could not ignore. Ukraine’s neutrality has been one of the non-negotiable Russian conditions for the conflict to end.

NATO has argued that its “open door” policy is essential and that no one had the right of veto over it, but also that its expansion eastward was not the cause of the conflict.

In an interview with Time magazine earlier this month, Biden claimed that the US is “the strongest nation” because of NATO expansion, and that he told Putin he would get “NATOization of Finland” instead of “the Finlandization of NATO” during their June 2021 summit in Switzerland.Russia’s intervention in Ukraine was triggered by the irresponsible and provocative rhetoric of US President Joe Biden and his administration about Kiev joining NATO, Donald Trump has said.

TAP – I doubt Farage would have said the same in the UK election period if Trump hadn’t announced the same thing in the US.

Where does that leave the Teds?  The English Democrats national council declared a policy of negotiating peace with Russia and lifting the sanctions two years ago.  I produced peace leaflets for the party which were regarded with mild interest to begin with, but now are red hot on the street, getting deep interest and response.  Does Reform changing the narrative from Putin the aggressor to Putin the provoked, make this effort redundant?  I don’t think it does.  In fact we need to keep Trump and Farage honest, and ensure people know that Reform/Conservative always faces competition for support.

The biggest obstancle for The Teds has always been the party website, which puts off the people who would otherwise have supported us.  I’ve asked for it to be dealt with many times, and so far it hasn’t been.  After two years of trying I am getting tired.  The people running the Teds are excellent people, and they never give up.  But unfortunately they’ve handed their website to an American organisation that might have connections to the Democrats in the US who easily sabotage the party’s best efforts, apparently without anyone noticing, or at least with no one able to sever the ties.  Unless the website is completely taken over by people who want the party to succeed, it will push my efforts onto the backburner.