Trump parrots Putin's propaganda, blames Nato & Biden for Russian invasion of Ukraine

In the latest instance of US President-elect Donald Trump parroting Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s propaganda, he has blamed outgoing US President Joe Biden and the Western military alliance Nato for provoking the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

At a press conference on Tuesday (January 7), Trump falsely said that Biden and his call for Ukraine’s membership of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) triggered the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Trump and his allies on the American far-right have long been friendly with Putin and have supported Russia over Ukraine and Nato. Trump has berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Putin for emptying American coffers over the aid that the Biden administration has been giving to Ukraine. He and his allies have also repeated Putin’s propaganda that it was Nato’s advancement towards Russian borders that forced Russia to invade Ukraine.

In reality, Putin invaded Ukraine because he rejects the nation’s right to exist and believes in carving out a Soviet Union-like sphere of influence around Russia.

Moreover, it was not Biden but former President George W Bush who called for Ukraine’s membership of Nato in 2008. Biden is merely the latest US and Western leader to support the idea of Ukraine’s Nato membership.

Blaming Biden for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Trump said, “A big part of the problem is, Russia —for many, many years, long before Putin— said, ‘You could never have NATO involved with Ukraine.’ Now, they’ve said that. That’s been, like, written in stone. And somewhere along the line Biden said, ‘No. They should be able to join NATO.’ Well, then Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feelings about that.”

While Trump had been boasting for nearly two years that he would end the war within 24 hours of assuming office, he said in the press conference that it would take him up to six months to end the war in Ukraine.

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“I hope to have six months. No, I would think, I hope long before six months. Look, Russia is losing a lot of young people, and so is Ukraine, and it should have never been started,” said Trump.

Even as Zelenskyy has changed tune and is appeasing Trump and berating Biden now, as was seen throughout the three-hour-interview with podcaster Lex Fridman last week, there are concerns in Ukraine and the West that Trump could force Ukraine into a deal with Russia that would essentially serve a victory to Russia on a platter. There are signs that Trump is planning exactly that.

While Trump has not yet outlined any plan to end the war in Ukraine, his top aides have outlined numerous plans that broadly call for freezing territorial control as of the day the deal would be signed and would take the Nato and European Union (EU) membership of Ukraine off the table to appease Putin.

Trump and his allies have a long history of aligning with Russia instead of US intelligence and allies. During his first term, against the assessments of US agencies, Trump parroted Putin’s claim that Russia had not intervened in the US election. Similarly, his allies now, chief among them his incoming intelligence head Tulsi Gabbard, are staunch supporters of Russia.

Just like Trump, Gabbard said on X on the day Russia invaded Ukraine: “This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine’s becoming a member of NATO, which would mean US/NATO forces right on Russia’s border (sic).”

In the run-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Gabbard falsely claimed that Biden wanted there to be a war. She said that Biden should assure Russia that Ukraine would not be part of Nato.

“Biden can very easily prevent a war with Russia by guaranteeing that Ukraine will not become a member of NATO. It is not in our national security interests for Ukraine to become a member of NATO anyway, so why not give Russia that assurance? Is it because the warmongers actually WANT Russia to invade? So that we can levy draconian sanctions on Russia and firmly establish a new Cold War which will reap the Military Industrial Complex endless profit for decades to come? (sic)” said Gabbard on X.