Trumps Strategy Again Wobbly Republicans Think
One-time President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Briefing in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 26. Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images hide explanation
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Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 26.
Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images
A "perfect" call, it was non.
Then-President Donald Trump was withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance for Ukraine's defense every bit he was asking its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to investigate Trump's potential 2020 rival, Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden.
That 2019 telephone call got Trump impeached. But the Senate acquitted him, and he dismissed the controversy equally a politically motivated hit job — and his base went along.
Now, with Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine and Zelenskyy being hailed effectually the world as a hero for his resolve, that call is put into a very unlike calorie-free.
"There's just a lot of evidence that Trump was incorrect on this issue [Ukraine] and that in many ways, nosotros undermined the NATO alliance and nosotros undermined Zelenskyy's position in the eyes of Russia and Putin," said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist and erstwhile senior adviser on Mitt Romney'due south 2012 presidential campaign.
Trump has shifted his positions on the war in Ukraine. Shortly before Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion, Trump chosen Putin "smart" and "savvy" because Putin had declared portions of Ukraine "independent," something Putin had no correct to do.
After the invasion began, Trump defended saying that Putin was "smart," then called President Biden "weak" and described NATO countries as "not so smart."
"The problem is not that Putin is smart — which of course he is smart," Trump told a oversupply at the Conservative Political Activity Conference. "Merely the real trouble is that our leaders are impaired. Dumb. So dumb."
As scenes of war and decease in Ukraine at the easily of Russia take played out for the world to run into on television screens all twenty-four hour period for days on end, Trump has changed his tune.
In contempo days, he called what'south happening in that location a "holocaust"; said many times over that the state of war would never take happened if he were still president; and even chosen for the U.Due south. to attack Russia but make it look like information technology was actually China — by flying American planes with a Chinese flag on the side.
"And then we say, 'China did it,' " Trump told Republican donors Sabbatum in New Orleans, co-ordinate to a recording obtained by The Washington Post. " 'Nosotros didn't exercise it — China did information technology,' and and so they offset fighting with each other and nosotros sit back and watch."
It's the kind of unproblematic-sounding amateur solution that Trump has floated throughout his political life, one that is impracticable in a complicated earth.
A pro-Ukraine protester demonstrates exterior the Russian Diplomatic mission in Washington, D.C., on Mon. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images hide caption
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Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
"Trump is on the wrong side of the issue, I call back it'due south fair to say," said Stephen Hayes, editor at the conservative outlet The Dispatch. "I don't think he's likely to bring a lot of people back to a pro-Putin opinion. If anything, we're likely to come across the hostility towards Putin and toward this brutal invasion increment, I think, in pretty meaning ways, equally information technology becomes clearer and clearer what Putin is really doing."
Different other issues, from Medicare to trade, in which Trump has brought Republicans to his view, he has struggled to lead on his position on Putin and Ukraine.
"I practise think this is a situation where it'south going to exist harder for Trump to bring that base along," Hayes said. "And maybe that's i of the reasons that we're starting to meet him soften that position."
Trump's approach to the world faces a test
Whether information technology will matter for Republican voters, as Trump continues to strongly tease a 2024 presidential run, is tougher to say.
"I recall it is a chance," Madden said. "But if the question is, how motivated are our base Republican voters on bug of national security and foreign policy or the threat of Russia? It's not as large an issue as some of these other cultural issues, where there is much closer alignment with Trump."
The culture wars, tax cuts and wanting authorities to do less really appear to be the unifying axis right now for the Republican Party. Only if Ukraine continues to get the kind of attention it's getting, that could change things, Hayes said.
"The reality ultimately does matter, right?" he said. "If nosotros just meet this kind of destruction that continues to get the kind of media attention it deserves, information technology changes things. It'll finish up changing things in our country. And I recollect people won't stand for that. I really do."
Few Republicans, nevertheless, accept called Trump out for his coziness toward Russian federation and his initial softer stance toward Putin. Instead, they are speaking more clearly in their denunciation of Putin only charging that Biden has botched the response.
Trump'south former vice president, Mike Pence, reportedly took an oblique shot at Trump in a spoken communication before GOP donors Friday.
"There is no room in this party for apologists for Putin," Pence said. "At that place is only room for champions of freedom."
He also praised NATO, which Trump has continuously criticized.
"Where would our friends in Eastern Europe be today if they were not in NATO?" Pence said. "Where would Russian tanks be today if NATO had not expanded the borders of freedom?"
The problem, Madden says, is that this kind of message isn't being delivered repeatedly across the Republican Party and washed then explicitly.
"That'south i of the things about any sort of counterpoints for Trump within the Republican Party correct at present is those efforts accept never actually been broad," Madden said. "They've never really been sustained. They've never been methodical. They've always but been glancing blows. And that's why he yet has such a potent command over the political party appliance."
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/03/08/1085023029/russias-invasion-puts-a-new-light-on-trumps-ukraine-pressure-campaign