Trump Announces Novel Plan To Send Weapons To Ukraine

I’m an isolationist.

I’ve made no secret about how important this belief is to my politics.

In 2000 and 2004, I voted for Al Gore and John Kerry out of sheer disgust with George W. Bush. In 2008 and 2012, I voted for Ron Paul in the Republican primaries. I refused to vote for John McCain and Mitt Romney in the 2008 and 2012 elections. McCain wanted to “bomb, bomb Iran.” He only bombed in Iowa, North Carolina and Indiana which Obama won because of the antiwar backlash.

In 2016, I voted for Trump who was the first Republican who I ever supported for president in a general election. I liked Trump because he called the Iraq War a disaster and because he destroyed Jeb Bush’s political career and defeated people like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz who I never would have supported in a million years. Then in April 2017, I quit supporting Trump after he attacked Syria. I didn’t vote in the 2018 midterms. I didn’t vote for Trump in the 2020 election and laughed at him when he lost.

The 2020 election gave us the Biden presidency. I steadily warmed toward Trump and the GOP in the Biden years. I voted for the GOP in the 2022 midterms. I voted for Trump and Republicans in the 2024 election. Normally, I don’t vote in the midterms, but what made 2022 an exceptional year was that I was furious with Joe Biden for getting us embroiled in this disaster in Ukraine. Trump ran in 2024 on ending the war in Ukraine and settling it “before his inauguration.” He didn’t run on arming Ukraine.

CNN:

“When President Donald Trump won last year’s election, European officials quickly began discussing how to sustain US weapons shipments to Ukraine under a leader who had vowed to pull back American support.

Eight months later, the results of that plan are coming into view, with Trump on board with a novel idea to sell US weapons to European nations that will then transfer them to Kyiv.

The president announced the plan during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Monday. The president also laid out a new deadline for Russia — threatening trade consequences if no peace deal is reached with Ukraine within 50 days. …

As for the weapons, in addition to Patriot missile batteries — the top item on Kyiv’s wish list and one Trump said Sunday was vital to Ukraine’s defenses — the US could also sell short-range missiles, Howitzer rounds and medium-range air-to-air missiles to NATO members, which would then be transferred to Ukraine, a person familiar with the deliberations said.

The thinking behind Trump’s decision on weapons is multifold, officials said.

By selling weapons to European nations, rather than transferring them to Ukraine itself, Trump hopes to insulate himself from political criticism that he is reversing a campaign pledge to reduce the US role in the years-long war. …”

No, I don’t deserve the “fell it for again” award on Ukraine.

I always doubted that Trump would be able to end the war in Ukraine.

I’m not surprised in the slightest that Putin is resisting ending the war. I don’t think Trump deserves 100% of the blame in this. Hundreds of thousands of young men are dead on both sides. The idea that Putin would just call it off or betray China to appease Trump was always laughable. Putin himself has said that Americans presidents come and go, but our foreign policy toward Russia never changes.

In any case, Donald Trump will never be on a ballot again and settling the Trump Question was the single most important reason why I voted for him. I wanted to get the Trump era over with. It is House and Senate Republicans who will be on the ballot in the 2026 midterms. I will be supporting whoever is running against Lindsey Graham and Tom Cotton who are responsible for this trainwreck.