Trump tightens his stance on Ukraine "We're stuck in this war until I'm president"
Donald Trump is pursuing a new course in Ukraine: similar to the Afghanistan mission, he is calling for the USA to withdraw from the conflict. The tablecloth with Volodymyr Zelensky has been cut: Trump refuses to meet.
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- "We're stuck in this war until I'm president": Donald Trump takes a new course on Ukraine.
- Trump argues that the Russians are warriors and that the USA in particular financed Kiev, while Europe merely weakened.
- His arguments therefore fall short.
- Trump refuses a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, who is currently visiting the USA: these are the reasons.
Donald Trump is not making a murder pit out of his heart. "[Joe] Biden and Kamala [Harris] got us involved in the war in Ukraine," the 78-year-old said on September 25 in Savannah, Georgia. "And now they can't pull us out."
He continues, "I've seen him say, 'We're going to win.' He's been saying that for ... three years." Who is the New Yorker talking about? "Every time [Volodymyr] Zelenskyi comes to the United States, he walks away with $100 billion. I think he's the best salesman in the world."
The fact that Trump thinks this way is nothing new. He used the "salesman" slogan for the first time in mid-June. Back then, however, he was still talking about 60 billion dollars. What is new is that the Republican is portraying the invasion of Ukraine in the same way as the US mission in Afghanistan.
"We're stuck in this war until I'm president"
"We're stuck in this war until I'm president. I can manage that. I can get this negotiated. I'm going out. We have to go out," he implores his audience. "Biden says," Trump disguises his voice, "'We're not leaving until we win. What happens if [the Russians] win?'"
The presidential candidate just answered this question himself - with a reference to history: "That's what [the Russians] do: they fight wars. It's like someone told me the other day: they beat Hitler. They beat Napoleon. That's what they do: they fight."
Trump's informant does not appear to have been an American, however, because without the massive material aid from Washington, German would most likely be spoken in Moscow today.
Trump also claims that the USA has given Kiev "around 300 billion dollars". "Do you know what Europe has given them? They've given them about ... a small fraction of that. Just a very small fraction."
Trump's new Ukraine message
This is simply wrong: while the USA had provided 75.1 billion dollars as of June 30, 2024, the support from Europe amounted to 110.2 billion dollars, writes the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
But Trump is not interested in facts anyway: The Russians are good at waging war, and you shouldn't get in their way. The Ukrainian president is a rip-off artist. And the only person who can pull the USA out of this Osteruopa mess is Trump. That is the message.
The fact that the tablecloth between the former American and the current Ukrainian president has been cut becomes clear at the latest during Zelensky's current visit to the US, where the 46-year-old actually wanted to meet with the Republican.
Trump lets Selenskyj run aground during his US visit
But Trump has given him a rebuff. On the one hand, the American is said to have objected to an appointment on September 23: Selenskyj visited an ammunition factory in Scranton in the presence of Democratic politicians. The visit to the swing state of Pennsylvania was like an election campaign appearance for his political opponent, conservatives criticized.
On the other hand, Trump is annoyed because Selensky is countering him. On September 24, during an appearance in Mint Hill, North Carolina, he says: "The president of Ukraine is in our country and he's making little snide remarks about your favorite president - me."
Trump is probably alluding to a Selensky interview with the "New Yorker" in which he criticized the Ukraine strategy of the two Republican candidates. Trump wants to bring both parties to the table by threatening Kiev to stop providing arms aid and telling Moscow that he will provide Ukraine with significantly more support if Putin does not cooperate.
Trump's designated Vice President James David Vance is just as critical of the case as his boss. Kiev must negotiate because it distracts from the real problems that the Americans have. "Everything must be put on the table".
"Ukraine is gone"
Trump goes even further in Mint Hill. "Ukraine is gone," he says in North Carolina. "It's not Ukraine anymore. You can't replace those cities anymore, and you can never replace the dead people, so many dead people. Any deal, even the worst deal, would have been better than what we have now."
Trump's withdrawal of love for Selenskyj is already having an impact on his party, CNN reports. The White House, on the other hand, is trying to take countermeasures: Joe Biden explicitly wants to use his remaining time in office to provide Kiev with as much aid as possible in case it dries up after the election in November. The next aid package, which will probably be published today, is said to be worth eight billion dollars.
Volodymyr Zelensky, however, is playing a risky game. Nothing today is reminiscent of his behavior in September 2019, when he was supposed to talk about whether he should find out negative things about Hunter Biden. Although this was the case, the Ukrainian is politely keeping a low profile.
If Trump wins the election in November, Zelensky has clearly lost. It would "create a crisis for Kiev, but would not guarantee defeat", writes Foreign Affairs. If Washington were to isolate itself, the Europeans would simply have to do more. Moreover, Kiev's arms industry is on the. on the upswing.
