Did Donald Trump encourage and embolden Vladimir Putin?

[kentuck]

Or did he keep the evil tendencies of Vladimir Putin at bay? Was Putin afraid of Trump? Did he think he was too unpredictable to challenge? And that is why he waited until Joe Biden was President until he decided to invade Ukraine? He saw Joe Biden as weak?

No doubt, this is what many Trump supporters believe. However, the reality paints a different picture.

Vladimir Putin has terribly miscalculated. He may have thought that NATO had been weakened to the point they would never oppose him? He may have thought the Ukrainians would have welcomed his troops with kisses and flowers? He may have thought the war would be short and he would continue his dominance over the Russian people?

But, he forgot one small item. Everything Donald Trump touches dies. His association with Donald Trump will be his downfall.

He may have thought Donald Trump and his followers were in charge of America and they were on the side of Putin and Russia?

He has made a blunder of historic proportions.

[Walleye]

1. I think he held out hope that Trump would be reinstated through violence

He didn’t understand our politics and electoral system. When obviously Trump was out for good, Putin decided to attack, thinking NATO would be at its weakest

[True Blue American]

22. Angry that his puppet lost

And thought the US and NATO were weak and he better strike now. He badly misjudged both.

[Walleye]

25. True. Also he didn't realize the fact that the votes for Biden actually represent a majority

Putin doesn’t understand elections, much like the Republican Party in this country, which is to determine the will of the people. It’s not some kind of power struggle to bend the will of the people

[True Blue American]

32. True!

Putin has no conception of that. But Ukraine, the US and NATO allies are showing him.

I read this morning we are sending Air support weapons they secretly gained from Russia!

[Walleye]

34. Good. I'm keeping the faith in the strength of our nation and our democracy

Our faith in our system and culture has been tested and strained lately. For some reason I still think the United States will prevail.

[PatSeg]

31. Yes and he probably thought

he might not get another chance and with Biden in the White House, NATO would eventually become stronger.

[C_U_L8R]

2. Probably handed him intel

Perhaps the CIA wasn't giving Trump the real stuff, fooling both those clowns.

[2naSalit]

5. +1

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

10. This is what I believe happened

They used drumpf as a honeypot to pump bogus intel to putey-pute.

[True Blue American]

24. Would not be surprised. They hate

Loose lips!

[gab13by13]

3. Putin groomed Donald Trump,

Trump is a Russian asset. All one needs to do is replay the Helsinki summit where Trump cowered before his puppet master.

Trump may have given Putin bad information about president Biden mistakenly believing that he was weak, that he wouldn't be able to unite NATO, but make no mistake, Putin has been grooming Trump for a very long time. Those pee tapes are also probably real.

[Achilleaze]

4. Everything the sleazy Republican Chief Crook & Goofball touches

either dies or is corrupted to the core. He's got a special satanic LoMoJo kind of perverse influence.

Putin and his Republican worshippers will soon face this fugly but inevitable truth.

[trusty elf]

9. ....

[Ray Bruns]

6. "Was Putin afraid of Trump?" Good one.

[uponit7771]

7. 100% believe some MAGA mouth was in Putrids ear before he attacked UKR saying US wont ...

... do anything to stop him

[Walleye]

35. Yep. That's just what I think. I think he's been talking to Donald all this time

Remember Trump called Putin, Mr. President, Putin called Trump, Donald

[bucolic_frolic]

8. Because of Trump, Putin thought Russian Oligarchs were the same as American Capitalists

Vlad misjudged a free society in a liberal state. From his experience, he actually cannot know much about it.

[gab13by13]

12. No such thing as American Capitalists,

We have American oligarchs just like Russia. The rich live under crony capitalism if you like, but only the poor live under capitalism in America.

[Evolve Dammit]

13. or the legal system....

[kentuck]

17. American Oligarchs?

Great point!

[gab13by13]

26. I listened to Thom Hartmann's show yesterday,

he said the biggest threat to our democracy is money. He said that to keep our democracy we need to tax the rich. He really blames Reagan for much of what ails our country. Under Reagan we had 1 billionaire in America, today we have 400.

American oligarchs own politicians, own the MSM, get to appoint our judges. He mentioned how Citizens United allowed the oligarchs dark money to weaken and if left unchecked, destroy our democracy.

The American oligarchs fund everything secretly. They fund the Federalist Society who picks our judges, who writes legislation for Republicans, like the anti-voter laws in the states. American oligarchs most likely are funding the trucker convoys.

[kentuck]

37. I agree with Hartmann.

Did he mention the names of the oligarchs?

They will destroy America just as they are now destroying Russia.

It is only about money.

[gab13by13]

38. There are plenty, here's a start; The Heritage Foundation;

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Heritage_Foundation

[kentuck]

40. Is Trump one of Putin's oligarchs?

I think it is very possible.

[gab13by13]

43. Don't know about oligarch being the right term, but close.

Trump wants to be like Putin, admires Putin, and wants America to be like Russia. Most likely Putin also has dirt on Trump, no doubt in my mind, that Trump gave Putin lots of classified information. Trump certainly laundered money for Russian oligarchs.

[AverageOldGuy]

11. Did Trump encourage and embolden Putin?

Does a bear live in the woods?

Is a pig's butt pork?

Is Ted Cruz a lying piece of shit?

Is Lindsey Graham a spineless wimp?

Is Josh Hawley dumber than a road kill armadillo?

[True Blue American]

28. Durbin is reading and asking about what Hawley

Said. The cameras is showing Hawley. Hawley just had his head handed to him in a gentlemanly way!

[NoMoreRepugs]

14. IF America is perceived as its people and the people

were STUPID enough to elect the SlobFather how could Pootie not think America would not challenge him? Just a possibility……….

[NNadir]

15. Everything he touches dies, but hopefully our country will prove...

...an exception.

[yellowcanine]

16. Does a bear shit in the woods?

[L. Coyote]

18. COVID intervened in Putin's plan to overthrow Ukraine while Trump was president.

Why do you think Putin installed Trump in the first place? As it turns out, Russian troops were enduring a wave of COVID while amassing in Belarus, but they needed to get ahead of the ground thawing in the north of Ukraine. Then another unpredicted event intervened, global warming thawed the ground before they invaded.

[70sEraVet]

20. I hadn't thought of Covid as being a factor in when the invasion would be launched

Makes sense though. Many armies have been defeated by microscopic enemies.

[PatSeg]

36. I hadn't either

I guess we've just gotten so used to it, we are inclined to forget its impact on geopolitics. It is possible that without the pandemic, Putin may have tried to invade Ukraine sooner.

[The Jungle 1]

19. Second term trump would have taken us out of NATO.

Trump promised puketin

[Mr. Ected]

21. Or maybe Putin knows that dirty tricks will lead to Trump's return

And he's just getting started on destroying democracies and installing his vision of corruption knowing that Trump will join him pulling the levers of authoritarianism in due time.

Nightmare scenario, yes. Likelihood pending review.

[JHB]

23. I think the technical terms are "aide and abet"

[empedocles]

27. A transcript of their conversations over time, a 'fly on the wall video' would be great.

One notion of mine is, putin bragging to trump how putin could kill his enemies - trump getting enthralled at the idea he could kill his own trump enemies!

[roamer65]

29. Yes.

[lagomorph777]

30. Why is there a question about that?

He made it very obvious that he was Poo Tin's puppy. Poo Tin installed Turd specifically as a pawn in his Ukraine plot. Turd delivered, in spades.

Poo Tin's lackey, Paul Manafort gets chummy with Turd. Manafort's previous task was to install a puppet in Ukraine; he succeeded, for a while.
Manafort gets the RNC to remove support from Ukraine from the party platform.
Poo Tin installs Turd, through the use of his spy networks and social media troll farms.
Turd spends 4 years trying to destroy NATO, Ukraine's primary (loose) ally.
Poo Tin gets Turd to pull a cockamamie blackmail scheme against Ukraine's president. There was no way Zelenskyy was going to cave, and Poo Tin knew that (though apparently Turd did not). The real goal was achieved: Turd withheld vitally needed Ukraine aid.

Though Poo Tin was obviously disappointed that his puppy got deposed in 2020, he had weakened NATO and Ukraine, and Poo Tin knew he needed to strike quickly, before President Biden could repair all the damage.

[MartyTheGreek]

33. Trump was a Double Agent, Useful Idiot!

And, he didn't know it! He stopped "hearing" Russian intel a long time ago on his request. He got bitter about any negative Russian or Putin news. Trump was in his own Information Bubble with Putin!

Was this a trap to be set by US Intel? A mastermind plan of the Century to play Trump and Putin knowing that their diabolical plan would end in failure, and only to strengthen NATO in the end?

Brilliant! I say, Brilliant!

[Escurumbele]

39. No, Putin knew how easy trump is to manipulate, all you have to do is to complement the idiot.

If anything prompted Putin to invade Ukraine now is to help trump politically.

I just hope everything goes wrong for Putin and we can get rid of the two SOBs. Maybe they can move together to a remote island and live there happily ever after loving each other, although I have a feeling Putin understand that trump is an useful idiot and deep inside he doesn't like trump at all.

[grantcart]

41. The pivotal point was the abandonment of the Kurd allies in Syria

The lack of blowback in removing a small support group exposing the Kurds who had previously decimated Russian mercenaries in Syria unlocked the door. Other quick abandoning of allies sang the door wide open. He concluded that the US would be angry, NATO would divided and Ukraine would fall.

All 3 major miscalculations.

[Emile]

42. The only news I want about Trump is that he is under arrest!

[Lithos]

44. Putin has had a war every two years

Russia has been pretty much involved in a war of one sort or another since the fall of the Soviet Union. It is a useful distraction which helps justify the authoritarian control. I think he remembered how easy it was for his armies to invade Ukraine in 2014 and wanted a repeat. The biggest surprise was that the Ukraine had received sufficient arms and more importantly, training, which allowed it to operate in a wholly unexpected manner.

If you want to give credit, give it to the Ukrainians. Give it to Poland and to the other states which helped Ukraine in the intervening period of 2014 to today.

[Cosmocat]

45. IMO

He knew he had the idiot wrapped around his finger, and gave him orders.

IMO, he knew Rs would gin up the zombie base to not support JB when he invaded Ukraine, so that was a win out of the gates.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

46. TFG encouraged and supported Putin

If TFG had been re-elected, NATO would be no more and Putin would have been handed Ukraine