TIME FOR TRUMP TO PIPE DOWN? Former President Donald Trump has lent his voice to the public debate over President Joe Biden’s handling of Ukraine. By doing so, Trump is flouting a tradition, adhered to by Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, of former presidents staying mostly quiet, or expressing support, when the sitting president navigated a foreign policy crisis. (Jimmy Carter did not observe that unwritten rule during the presidency of Reagan, the man who defeated him; in that sense, Trump is playing a role similar to Carter in the 1980s, if Carter had had Trump’s flair.)
But Trump has added another dimension to the debate. He is using the Ukraine crisis to argue — as he never fails to do — that the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Biden, was rigged. Indeed, Trump is arguing that the current Ukraine crisis would not have happened but for the rigged election.
Trump rolled out the claim Tuesday in an interview on the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton podcast. Sexton asked this question: “Mr. President, in the last 24 hours we know Russia has said that they are recognizing two breakaway regions of Ukraine, and now this White House is stating that this is an ‘invasion.’ That’s a strong word. What went wrong here? What has the current occupant of the Oval Office done that he could have done differently?”
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“Well, what went wrong was a rigged election,” Trump began. “And what went wrong is a candidate that shouldn’t be there and a man who has no concept of what he’s doing. I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of Ukraine, he declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful.”
Now, anyone listening to Trump with even a cursory familiarity with his speaking style will realize that he did not actually mean Putin’s declaration was “wonderful.” He meant it was bad, in the way one might discover that all one’s plans have been dashed and say bitterly, “Oh, that’s wonderful.”
Trump continued: “So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be the peacekeeper. That’s the strongest peace force … We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re gonna keep peace, all right. No, but think of it. Here’s a guy who’s very savvy … I know him very well. Very, very well.”
Again, anyone listening to Trump who has heard Trump speak before will realize that he does not think Putin’s “peacekeeping” force is actually a peacekeeping force. When Trump said, “They’re gonna keep peace, all right,” he meant the opposite — that it was obvious Putin’s force was moving into Ukraine to make war.
Finally, Trump said: “By the way, this never would have happened with us. Had I been in office, not even thinkable. This would never have happened. But here’s a guy that says, you know, ‘I’m gonna declare a big portion of Ukraine independent,’ he used the word independent, ‘and we’re gonna go out and we’re gonna go in and we’re gonna help keep peace.’ You gotta say that’s pretty savvy. And you know what the response was from Biden? There was no response. They didn’t have one for that. No, it’s very sad. Very sad.”
Once more, Trump was mocking the idea of Putin declaring part of Ukraine “independent.” Of course those regions will not be “independent.” And Trump was also mocking the idea of Putin claiming that the purpose of sending heavily armed Russian fighting units into Ukraine was to “keep peace.”
But in the big picture, Trump framed his comments in terms of the 2020 election. Remember, his answer began with, “Well, what went wrong was a rigged election.” And Trump did much the same thing the next night, when he appeared on Laura Ingraham’s program on Fox News. He talked about “the weakness and the incompetence and the stupidity of this administration,” and then added: “As an American, I am angry about it, and I’m saddened by it. And it all happened because of a rigged election.”
Now, it is true that some conservatives have argued that Putin would not have invaded Ukraine had Trump been in the White House. After all, Putin attacked Ukraine in 2014, and then again in 2022, but not in the 2017-2021 period when Trump was president. “The sheer unpredictability of Trump, his anger at being defied or disrespected, his willingness to take the occasional big risk (the Suleimani strike), all had to make Putin frightened or wary of him in a way that he simply isn’t of Joe Biden,” National Review editor Rich Lowry wrote recently.
But from that plausible point, Trump jumped — again, as he always does — to the 2020 election. And that brings up the question: When it comes to Ukraine, is it time for Trump to pipe down? It’s a hypothetical question, of course, because he would never do that. But I put the question to some Republican lawmakers on Thursday. While some did not respond, the three who did all offered some version of “yes.”
“Usually a good time for that,” responded one GOP lawmaker when asked if it is time for Trump to be quiet.
“I don’t think it helps right now,” said another.
A third GOP lawmaker said his staff had prepared a reaction statement criticizing Biden for the White House handling of the crisis. The lawmaker said, no, there will be plenty of time for that, but right now he should direct his fire at Putin and express U.S. support for Ukraine. He then said he would prefer if Trump did that, too, avoiding “overtly political” statements about Ukraine. Then, thinking out loud, he reminded himself that it is just not in Trump’s nature to do something like that.
So, Trump is really doing two things in his statements. One, he is breaking the (non-Carter) tradition of former presidents keeping their views mostly to themselves during a time like this. And two, he is indulging his obsession with the 2020 election results. Most Republicans — actually nearly all Republicans — are not going along. They are focusing on what is happening in Ukraine and keeping 2020 out of it. Other political figures, like Hillary Clinton, are indulging their own obsession with Trump — see this article in the Atlantic — but mostly this is a time to be thinking about what is best for the United States to do, and not to do, in Ukraine.
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