The Former Presidency of Donald J. Trump, Volume XI: The Crypt Keeper Years

That the world came to the brink of a nuclear war? Yes, probably.

I mean I don’t think anyone is criticizing NATO before 1990. I’m for sure not. I’m just saying that expanding NATO right to Russia’s borders actually makes the alliance weaker and more brittle, and is provocative towards Russia to boot.

If you look at the sum of Russian actions and NATO actions past 1990 and come to the conclusion that NATO is the aggressor who is agitating and provoking that I don’t know what to tell you.

1 Like

Putin is a bad hombre but Trump was right when he asked if we were so innocent. Both sides can be provocative. And including Ukraine and Georgia into NATO would be extremely provocative, do you disagree?

1 Like

Admitting Ukraine or Georgia into NATO is as provocative as admitting a battered spouse into a shelter.

6 Likes

More like taking her out of one abusive relationship and inserting her into another slightly less abusive relationship.

It’s a complete myth that NATO kept peace in Europe, and that without it Russia would have invaded. The Soviet satellite states were there to protect an equally paranoid Russia from an America making increasingly aggressive noises and threats.

5 Likes

Republicans could not care less about NATO or Russia either way so not sure why people are getting into the weeds with Keeeeed about this. Trump’s concern wasn’t genuine either, regardless of whether Putin put him up to it; like everything with Trump it was self-serving in some way. There may very well be some good faith concerns with how NATO operates but I don’t expect neither Trump nor keeed to discuss them as such.

2 Likes

Would you be comfortable with NATO applying those same war plans to Georgia and Ukraine if Russian tanks cross their border?

Trump occasionally tripped on his dick into good policy ideas that are common sense. Remember that one big jerk off meeting where he was like “then just have Medicare cover everyone?” Somebody had something on him, whenever that happened it was never spoken of again.

3 Likes

He also wanted to give all the daca people citizenship too IIRC during a meeting with pelosi. Republicans leaned over and whispered to him and ended the meeting.

Also talked about taking guns from everyone and ask questions later.

There were a couple things he had the right idea on, but Republicans walked him back from doing popular policy.

Also wanting bigger relief checks.

Trump really could have gotten a lot of that stuff done. If he pushed M4A his supporters would have gotten on board and Republicans would have no choice. Dems would have probably tanked it though LOL

7 Likes

If Trump wasn’t a moron he’d have been reelected in a landslide. The position he was in when he was innaugurated might be the best start location a president has had in American history.

The only reason Biden’s is worse is that he has to get by Mitch. Donald could have shattered Mitch’s kneecaps with a bat probably in real life and turned a political profit.

It’s hilarious that we really gave the strongman approach a real try. He had all the pieces you could need to make it work and just fucked it up like he fucked up every other thing in his life.

7 Likes

That would not be possible.

I don’t see why not. Tactical nukes on columns of Russian armor would be just as effective in Ukraine as it would have been in Germany.

I mean theoretical trump ie not the fat lazy know nothing loser we know him to be could easily have outflanked the dems hard on the left economically, picked up all the dissaffected leftists and still kept his core of lunatics.

1 Like

Yeah that would have ended badly though. Fascism can’t govern, which of course we’ve all experienced first hand over the last four years. I’m glad he was as dumb as he was though. As a nation this is definitely one of those ‘if the bullet had been 2 inches to the right you’d have died instantly’ situations. Complete with the enormous damage that will take years to recover from if we ever do.

It wasn’t going to be tactical nukes. Every inch of Eastern Germany to the Russian border was going to be turned into a nuclear wasteland, a dead zone 1000km wide.

I won’t quibble with you as your scenario is more impactful than the one I was alluding to. NATO was always built on the threat of using nuclear weapons. Planners doubted we could stop the Soviets in Germany and the plan was always to use nuclear weapons to slow the invasion. Similarly, we can’t stop the Russians in the Baltics or Ukraine or Georgia with our current conventional weapons. You want to extend the same nuclear deterrent to conventional invasion right to Russia’s doorstep? Pretty reckless if you ask me.

If Trump had followed through on ending all the wars and kept up the racism while delivering national health insurance he would have been unstoppable, like Putin level dictator for life. With a second term he would have had plenty of runway to completely eliminate the rule of law and turn the country into a fascist kleptocracy.

5 Likes

It really was a layup.

sure, but this isn’t happening in a vacuum. Russia is making moves that are provocative as well. You’re taking a very Chamberlainesque position here. Just let Putin have the Sudetenland and then he’ll be satisfied, right?

1 Like