In Rambling Interview, Trump Blames Zelensky, Not Putin, for Ukraine War
nytimes.com
The war began when Russia invaded Ukraine, but Donald J. Trump said on a podcast that the Ukrainian president “should never have let that war start.”
Should give us a clue, how Donnie would end the war on his first day in office with one phone call to Vlad (and very likely an Executive Order to stop all military aids).
Would be the start of the great nation “South Belarus” (so Ukrainians get a pretty good idea, how they’re supposed to identify)
Archive link because of the paywall: https://archive.ph/RrVDi
@ OP: please add archive links for accessibility purposes
Will do in the future! I forget because of the bypass paywalls extension. Thanks for covering this one!
I'm pretty sure his voters think he's the last great hope or something so they don't care whatever he says or how deranged he is. They will vote for him anyways.
Could someone please explain the rationale behind this? From what I gather it amounts to "well yeah Putin sent his army and started the war, but he was forced to by NATO/USA/Biden personally/Zelensky personally, THEY are the real warmongers!" But when I ask why, and what would have happened to Russia if he didn't start the war, they don't actually answer and just smile knowingly like I'm some kind of moron for not figuring it out by myself.
I have shared this quote so many times. It doesn't stop being relevant.
Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.
Jean-Paul Sartre
Sartre shook me years ago with No Exit. That plot was so well done and interesting!
Years later, I read this quote. And once again, I'm amazed at his ability to word things in such an understandable and insightful way. I've read this quote many times but never seen it credited to Sartre before... that's so awesome.
So to be fair, this is consistent with what was always his stated position. Trump has said from day one that Zelinskyy should have just ceded the disputed territory to Putin based solely on Putin's pinky swear that he won't come looking for more. So since Zelinskyy didn't accept Putin's demands before the tanks rolled in, it's therefore his fault the war began. See? He's not saying Zelinskyy invaded Russia or something. He's just doing some classic victim blaming.
So much for "Fight, Fight, Fight."
Ukraine gave up its nukes years ago on a pinky swear Russia would leave it alone. They'd have to be Trump-level stupid to think if they just give up one more thing this time Russia will keep its word.
classic "she made me give her a black eye!" defense
More like, "Did you see how she was dressed? She was asking for it!"