As a wise sage once said, "It's déjà vu all over again." Leftist are whipping themselves into a frenzy, erroneously proclaiming that Russia, and Vladimir Putin in particular, continue to have something on Donald Trump by which they are controlling him.
“Bolshoi” as they say in Russia.
Trump Has Mastered the Art
Trump has no qualms about strongly dealing with Putin in the quest to achieve a lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine. What Trump understands, and well more than half of the U.S. populace does not, is that Putin won’t agree to a peace agreement if he is made to appear weak. So, Trump publicly cites his respect for Putin and provides some cover for him. Meanwhile, Trump maintains a position of strength and resolve.
Which is more important to the world? Is it making Putin look villainous or achieving peace? Eight years ago, in handling Putin, Trump characteristically took bold action, which Leftists continue to not know or not to acknowledge if they do know.
While the libstream media continues its non-stop, massive lies about Donald Trump being 'soft' on Russia, a brief trip down memory lane makes it abundantly clear that Trump knows what he’s doing and that no U.S. president in recent history has been any tougher on Russia.
Reviewing the Record
Starting in the spring of 2017, what did President Trump do to influence and otherwise contain Russian aggression? Here are but a handful of examples:
* Trump imposed sanctions on Russian companies and Russian entities, blocking at least $3 billion worth of deals from going into Russian coffers.
* He placed harsh economic restrictions on a group of Russian oligarchs, which effectively put more pressure on Putin. The Russian leader has illegally amassed enormous wealth – exceeding $25 billion – in the last several decades. Still, he can't hold all that wealth in his name, so he appoints oligarch cronies as his trustees. Putting his oligarchs on sanctions hurt Putin significantly.
* Trump levied financial sanctions and travel restrictions on 50-plus individuals accused of human rights abuses and corruption under both the Magnitsky Act and the Global Magnitsky Act.
* Trump criticized NATO allies, then and now, for not spending enough on defense. NATO allies consequently took steps to pay more, and NATO appears stronger than before, which is decidedly not the outcome Putin wanted.
* Trump authorized the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats from the U.S. in the wake of a nerve agent attack on British soil, allegedly at the hands of the Kremlin.
* He approved the export of lethal weapons, including American-made Javelin antitank missiles, to help Ukraine shore up its eastern defenses against separatists backed by Moscow. In contrast, Obama did next to nothing, while Biden’s handlers threw multi-billions of dollars Ukraine’s way with no end game.
* Trump unleashed forces that killed more than 200 Russian soldiers in Syria.
* He facilitated U.S. sales of more coal to Ukraine while weakening Russia's hold on oil exports.
* He ramped up our military to pressure the Russian Federation, and he strengthened alliances and military cooperation with the Baltic States that share borders with Russia.
* He offered to host a permanent contingent of U.S. troops in Poland, as Germany and Italy have long done, to help secure Poland’s 180-mile-long border with Russia.
* He explored with Ukraine’s president in 2017, Petro Poroshenko, the enhancement of cooperation in security and defense sectors and the importance of keeping tight sanctions on Russia – to Putin, a most unwelcome development.
* Trump also pressured Germany over its status as the largest buyer of Russian natural gas, and as a huge buyer of Russia coal and mineral oil.
* He sanctioned four Russian entities and seven individuals in response to a 2018 attempt to interfere in U.S. midterm elections, including Russian financier Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a wealthy Putin loyalist.
* He suspended U.S. obligations under the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty because Russia was not complying with it.
A Tough Act to Follow
In all, even the liberal Brookings Institute acknowledged that Trump enacted more than 50 sanctions or policy actions on Russia, many being severe, starting from Trump’s fourth month in office to the end of his first term.
Predictably, the Left prefers that you remain ignorant about these actions and, in 2025 is dispensing the same bulltwang that they did in 2017.
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