The following report is by Chris Brennan, USA Today (excerpts):
President-elect Donald Trump made plenty of promises on the campaign trail this year. One stood out as his most audacious vow – he would swiftly end the war between Ukraine and Russia, even before being inaugurated.
Trump, now five weeks away from taking the oath of office again, was asked about that Monday. And it became immediately clear that the former and future president had moved on from audaciousness to a mix of ambiguity and ambivalence.
Consider Trump’s response during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, when a reporter noted that he had promised to end the war before he took office and asked if he could still get that done.
“I’m going to try,” Trump said.
[…] See if you get an “I might. … I’m going to try,” vibe from these promises Trump made this year.
Let’s start with this June 22 campaign rally in Philadelphia, where ending the war between Ukraine and Russia was written into his stump speech.
“Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, shortly after we win the presidency,” Trump said. “I will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled.”
Russia was clearly listening. Tass, a Russian state-owned news agency, reported Trump’s promise the next day. But the Russian government was not convinced. That country’s ambassador to the United Nations cast serious doubt on Trump’s ability to end the war in comments made 10 days after that promise.
Trump didn’t care. He made the promise again during a Sept. 10 debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, where he bragged about having the “respect” of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“That is a war that is dying to be settled,” Trump said then. “I will get it settled before I even become president.”
Trump made this vow a third time on Oct. 17 during a speech at the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner in New York. Trump, lamenting the deaths from the war, said “religious people” had asked him to intervene.
“So sad to see so many people have been killed in Ukraine and we’re going to get it settled up if we win,” Trump said. “As president-elect, I’m going to get that done.”
So here we are. Trump is president-elect. Time to get the deal done. But on Monday, Trump didn’t even sound like he had “concepts of a plan” on how to end the fighting that has raged since Russia invaded Ukraine. Trump claimed to have made “a little progress” without offering even a scrap of detail to back that up.
“It’s a tough one. It’s a nasty one,” Trump said when asked about the war. “It’s nasty. People are being killed at levels that nobody’s ever seen.”
Trump was asked if Zelenskyy should give up Ukrainian territory seized by Putin.
“He should be prepared to make a deal. That’s all. Got to be a deal,” Trump said before pivoting again to his unsubstantiated claim that Putin would have never invaded Ukraine in 2022 if he had still been president.
Read the rest of the report here.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Regular readers of The WP know that for months I have said that Trump is not going to end the war in Ukraine, not that he ever had an inkling of the power to do that (he doesn’t in the slightest, contrary to what all the “alt” pundits would have you believe). The military industrial complex is in control, and he is just a pawn in it; taking his orders from corporate wealth and private interests, from his Jesuit and Zionist puppeteers.
In April, Trump, in alignment with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, agreed to give more money to the Zelensky regime in the form of a loan; not ending it, but dishing out the dough with interest – even though those loans would never get paid back.
Just yesterday I quoted NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who openly talked about how Trump helped to bolster NATO the first time he was in office, and no doubt he will do so again the second. My comments were correct, and it did not take long to confirm them.
Rutte said:
What he wants is to make sure that that the US is not overspending and we are not doing enough. And he’s totally right. I mean, I remember when he became President in 2016, 2017 that he continued to push us. And since he became president, we spent 641 billion more than before he came on. That’s an advocate of what we are spending more since, since then and since 2014 it was very sluggish. The uptake of moving to the 2% since he became president, we accelerated, of course, the full onslaught, the full-scale onslaught of Russia and Ukraine, has also ramped up defence spending, but he was very successful in ramping it up. He will again push us.
But my point is this, I don’t want to spend more because he wants, we have to spend more because our deterrence is at stake. Our security is at stake. Our collective defence is not what it should be, and we are in real difficulty in four or five years. That is why we need to spend more, not because of Donald Trump, but he is right. We need to do more.
And by the way, what we need from him. I have a big ask from Donald Trump, and this is about the US industrial defence capacity. I know as Prime Minister of the Netherlands how difficult it is to buy anything in the US, be it Patriots or missiles, whatever you have to go through Congress and the Senate. No, sorry, the Congress, the Pentagon and the White House, they all have to agree. And as I said, we have our 184 billion we are spending since 2022, European Allies in the US, that can be even more. I’m absolutely convinced if he would make it easier for European Allies to buy in the US. So, this is something he can help with, and it helps also his own economy. But I know, I think he was spot on on forcing us to spend more. But again, let’s not do it now because he wants it. We do it because we need to do it. It’s our collective defence which is at stake.
And there you have it. If you believe Trump is anti-war and is a non-politician, that he is some grassroots man fighting for the people, then you have drank the Kool-Aid because nothing could be farther from the truth. And him pushing and funding NATO is just one aspect of it: I’ve documented his blatant acts of vastly increasing and funding the military industrial complex more than his predecessors; and his latest cabinet picks, and his and their statements, prove that he is totally gung-ho for more war. Michael Tracy has a good article detailing Trump’s support for NATO while he was in office.
You don’t need me to tell you this, but war is going to greatly expand in 2025. I don’t expect Ukraine to come to an end like Trump has tried to claim he will end on the first day of his Presidency, and I think it is likely the U.S. will get involved in warring with China over Taiwan and The Philippines.
Mark 13:7 And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. [8] For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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