Presidential debate puts Trump’s affinity for Putin back in the spotlight
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Donald Trump insisted during the debate that he could strike a fast deal because Mr Vladimir Putin “respects” him.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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WASHINGTON – Former US president Donald Trump’s refusal to say that he hopes Ukraine will win its war against Russia has cast a spotlight on what promises to be an abrupt US policy shift toward the conflict – and US relations with Moscow – if Trump returns to the White House.
Twice Trump was asked directly at the presidential debate on Sept 10 night
“I think it’s in the US’ best interest to get this war finished and just get it done, negotiate a deal, because we have to stop all of these human lives from being destroyed,” he said.
Trump went on to suggest that he would leverage his friendly relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, underscoring clear signs that he intends to reverse President Joe Biden’s confrontational relationship with Russia.
Trump’s answers “should tell people all they need to know – which is that if Trump gets elected and gets involved, Ukraine’s going to be the loser and Russia’s going to be the winner”, said Mr John Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security adviser.
Mr Bolton has become a vocal critic of the former president, who fired him after repeated policy disagreements
Trump offered little detail on how he would negotiate a rapid end to the Ukraine war, saying only that he would speak to both Mr Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to strike a deal even before he was inaugurated in January.
That is a seemingly impossible goal.
Mr Zelensky has ruled out any settlement with Russia that does not restore his country’s original borders, while Mr Putin seems determined to conquer even more of Ukraine than the around one-fifth of its territory that his army now occupies.
Given the realities on the ground and Ukraine’s lack of leverage over Russia, analysts said that calling for a swift end to the war was tantamount to arguing that Ukraine should surrender much of its territory to Mr Putin.
It could also rattle other US allies who might question their assumptions about American commitments.
Mr Richard Haass, a former diplomat and the president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, called the idea that Trump could broker a near-immediate end to the war “preposterous”.
Mr Haass said the claim was most likely “an empty but impossible-to-disprove boast that associates Trump with peace and his opponent with war”.
Speaking at a news conference in Kyiv on Sept 11, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left no doubt about where the Biden administration stood. “We want Ukraine to win,” he said.
During her nomination speech at the Democratic National Convention in August, Vice-President Kamala Harris declared that “as president, I will stand strong with Ukraine and our Nato allies”.
Trump did not criticise or threaten to halt US military and economic aid to Ukraine, but he has previously implied that he considers that spending wasteful.
During remarks in June, Trump referred to Mr Zelensky as “the greatest salesman of all time” and complained that the Ukrainians’ plea for more aid “never ends”.
Insisting during the debate that he could strike a fast deal because both Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin “respect” him, Trump complained that Mr Biden had not pressured the warring leaders into peace talks.
“He hasn’t even made a phone call in two years to Putin,” Trump said.
That is roughly accurate: Mr Biden and Mr Putin last spoke in February 2022. Oddly, Trump falsely asserted that Ms Harris met with Mr Putin shortly before the Russian invasion the following February.
Mr Andrew Weiss, a former US national security official and Russia expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has chronicled Trump’s statements about Mr Putin and Russia for months on the social media site X.
Mr Weiss notes that Trump has repeatedly indicated that he would seek to normalise relations with Moscow and resume direct dialogue with Mr Putin.
Trump was particularly enthusiastic during his interview with X owner and Tesla mogul Elon Musk in August, telling him that, as president, “I loved Russia. I was a friend of Putin, and I loved Russia.”
Trump continues to dismiss concerns about his admiration for Mr Putin as part of a grand “Russia hoax” meant to discredit him.
At the debate, he claimed that Mr Putin had “endorsed” Ms Harris, referring to ostensibly positive comments the Russian leader recently made about her.
But Mr Putin appeared to be speaking mischievously
Ms Harris for her part told Trump that Mr Putin “would eat you for lunch”.
For now, Mr Haass said, the key question is what kind of deal Trump would actually pursue as president.
Mr Haass, who has advocated more US efforts to begin peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, suggested that Trump might in fact “continue aid and try to persuade both sides that further fighting would not yield benefits”.
That approach could eventually lead to “an interim ceasefire with modest territorial adjustments and which required neither side giving up its long term aims”, he said.
“But the danger given Trump’s admiration for Putin and antipathy towards Zelensky is he might opt for an imposed peace that would surely be rejected in Kyiv but would cause real harm to Ukraine and to the US standing with allies everywhere,” he added. NYTIMES
