Thom: Trump had a long phone conversation with Vladimir Putin—apparently an hour and a half long—in which Putin gave him his marching orders, and Trump just bent over and, metaphorically, obviously—it was a telephone call—kissed Putin's ass. In my opinion, this is treason. The betrayal of our democratic allies has officially begun, and Putin—this butcher—played Trump like a fiddle at a country fair. He even fed him his own words: common sense.
Trump was bragging, "Oh yeah, Putin used my favorite phrase—common sense!" You think? The guy is an expert in psychological warfare. He used to run Russian intelligence in East Germany.
Let’s be clear: Russia invaded Ukraine just like Hitler invaded Poland, just like Japan invaded China. Those invasions led to millions of deaths, a world war, and, eventually—to prevent a repeat—the creation of NATO. Now, Trump and his allies are openly saying they're going to give Putin—who is losing this war, suffering massive casualties, and whose economy is on its knees with 17 or 18% inflation—everything he wants.
Just keep those trolls on social media loving Republicans, and we'll give you what you want, Vlad. It’s amazing. No giving back to Ukraine the mineral-rich lands that Russia has stolen. No NATO or defense guarantees for Ukraine.
This is particularly egregious since Russia has violated the Budapest Memorandum—the 1994 agreement Bill Clinton negotiated that promised Ukraine protection if they gave up their nuclear weapons. Ukraine had the world’s third-largest stash of nukes. They gave them up, and in return, Russia promised not to invade. Now, there’s no punishment for Russia for invading a peaceful neighbor and murdering tens of thousands of innocent civilians. No retribution for Russia stealing over 100,000 Ukrainian children and trafficking them into Russia—the only country in the world where child porn is legal. No return of those children to their parents and their country.
Trump is telling the world that territorial acquisition by force is acceptable again. He even blamed Ukraine for "going to war," as if this was their fault. He spoke well of Putin—a murderous thug—and then quoted Putin’s lie that Zelensky isn’t polling well in his own country. Right, like Gallup is over there doing reasonable polls. Give me a break.
Trump wouldn’t even call Ukraine a partner with the U.S. in negotiations. This is going to be entirely between him and Putin. And now, Trump says he’s going to Russia—or maybe Saudi Arabia—to meet Putin in person. So he can kiss his ass in person.
This is treason—both against the United States and against democracies across the world. It’s a complete repudiation of the world order established after World War II, which was specifically designed to prevent the kind of territorial seizure that could lead to another world war.
I mean, Trump actually said yesterday, "Russia fought for that land in Ukraine and lost a lot of men doing it, so they should just keep it." And our defense secretary backed him up!
When aggressive countries invade and steal territory, Trump says that’s just fine. No penalty—keep what you got, no matter how many people you have to kill. After all, Ted Cruz led a Senate inquiry yesterday into how America might seize Greenland. Honest to God—not a word about helping Ukraine, but seizing Greenland, possibly by force?
Trump is trying to turn us into Russia. This is the kind of insanity that leads to another world war—or the destruction of the United States of America. Is that his goal? Is Putin running America now?