According to Bob Woodward’s upcoming book “WAR”, Donald Trump had “as many as seven” secret calls with Vladimir Putin after leaving office. From the initial details provided to the public, Trump requested full privacy during these calls and asked for his staffers and assistants to leave. However, knowing what we know about normal communications protocols used by heads of state and the Russian government’s proclivity for recording and surveillance, we can assume that the Russians have copies of each of these calls that Trump made. It’s also possible that the U.S. intelligence community has a record of the calls. Trump wouldn’t be the target of the call, but given that Putin is a high-value target, Trump’s conversations could have been recorded.
Where do we begin…
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Let’s start by recognizing the obvious: Donald Trump has always placed gaining the approval of Vladimir Putin over any sense of duty towards the United States of America and the office of the president. This means that even when out of office, Trump is willing to provide any information, ingratiate himself by telling Putin what he wants to hear, and use any influence and power he has to try to work with Vladimir Putin, all at the detriment of the United States. I have no doubt that Trump used these calls to promise all sorts of policies and favors to Putin and took every opportunity to argue against the decisions of the current administration.I would argue that these calls played a major role in Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine and continue the war - even as Russia suffered setbacks over the past two years.
How to Deal with Putin
Trump was a useful idiot to Putin during his presidency. I have no doubt that his phone calls to Putin included cheerleading the latest Russian transgression and praising Putin’s invasion. Moreover, these calls provided an important utility for the Russian government’s decision making. Trump’s support of Putin and the possibility of Trump’s return to the presidency means that any policy taken by the current administration towards the Russo-Ukrainian War has an expiration date. Trump’s phone calls to Putin signals that his administration-in-waiting would be more than willing to accept Russia’s demands at the cost of our allies and interests - he’s already publicly bragged about his intent to violate the Logan Act and begin negotiations before taking office.
We should also consider that for someone who brags about how he would end the war and all the deals he’s made, Trump’s calls to Putin failed to prevent the invasion. As the diplomats, strategists, and professionals managed a challenge from our adversary and mobilized to give Ukraine the support it needed, Trump was probably whining on a call to Putin about how he would have never gotten into this mess. In a way he’s correct - the only thing he knows is surrender and appeasement, and if he were president there would be zero pushback against Russia’s invasion.
This country deserves a leader that won't take private calls with a dictator and sabotage the country out of pettiness and spite. There’s only one real choice for U.S. national security, it’s Harris.
This article reprinted with the author’s permission from his blog Why It Matters. See the original here.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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