Adult supervision of disappeared, Trump blames Ukraine again for being invaded

Washington – Free of the supervision of European leaders, President Donald Trump, returned to form on Tuesday, blaming Ukraine for being invaded by Russia and making the arguments of the dictator Vladimir Putin in his name.

“Russia is a powerful military nation. You know, whether people like or not, it is a powerful nation. It is a much larger nation,” Trump said in a 25 -minute appearance and telephone in the morning program of News. “You don’t do that. You don’t take, you don’t face a nation that is 10 times your size.”

Trump, at least during the public parts of Monday’s meetings, refrained from offering his proputin points of view and, on the other hand, gave the appearance of solidarity with Europe in his support for Ukraine.

However, that performance disappeared on Tuesday morning when he called “News & Friends.”

Trump again offered warm words for Putin, who was accused of war crimes for his behavior in the invasion, and who Trump invited Alaska last week: “You saw that when he got off his plane, I left my plane. There is a warmth that you cannot, you know, there is a decent feeling.”

Sergey Bobylev / Pool / News through Getty Images

Trump also urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to appease Putin by giving Ukrainian territory: “I hope Zelenskyy, President Zelenskyy does what he has to do. He also has to show some flexibility.”

And Trump suggested that Ukraine brought Putin’s brutal invasion about herself seeking to join NATO: “It was always a non-no, you could not. Russia said:” We do not want the so-called opponent or the enemy, “let’s use that term,” we don’t want them on our border. “And they were right.”

None of the program presenters asked Trump why that supposed standard does not apply to Latvia and Estonia, who joined NATO in 2004, or Finland, which joined in 2023, largely in response to Putin’s invasion to Ukraine. The three nations border Russia.

Trump even came to take the credit of the other seven European leaders who arrived at their meeting with Zelenskyy to discuss the summit with Putin days before.

“I think really, they respect our country again. A year ago, they would not have come. They wouldn’t even have thought about that. Now we have become the most popular country anywhere in the world. Everyone wants to be here. When I made the call, they came,” Trump said.

Actually, it was Zelenskyy who asked the other leaders who came to offer a united front, and to avoid the ambush he suffered during his last visit of the Oval office in February when he was publicly attacked and insulted by Trump, Vice President JD Vance and the “reporter” Pro-Trump “Brian Glenn. That treatment was seen with horror in the European capitals.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, even declared his reason to attend in advance in social networks: “At the request of President Zelenskyy, I will join the meeting with President Trump and other European leaders in the White House tomorrow.”

“The idea came from Zelenskyy and was immediately supported by [German Chancellor Friedrich] Merz and the others, “said Jan Techau, an analyst based in Berlin of the Center for the analysis of European policies.” But, of course, Trump loves to hold the courts. Then he makes him evidence of his unique genius. “

Von der Leyen and Merz joined the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, to the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron for the afternoon meetings.

All leaders praised Trump generously, continuing a strategy adopted by allies and adversaries worldwide to obtain what they want from the president of the United States attention.

“Everyone has to give Trump credit for everything,” said Fiona Hill, an analyst at Russia in the National Security Council during Trump’s first mandate. “This is right now the price of admission for a civil meeting.”

Trump also sprayed in some of his usual lies, such as blaming the predecessor Joe Biden for Russia’s invasion and taking credit to finish six wars worldwide.

In Tuesday’s narration of its end of the war between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it had continued for 35 years, which is four years more than its previous versions of the statement, including what made European leaders in the White House on Tuesday.

In fact, while Trump brought the leaders of the two nations to the Oval office in June to sign a peace agreement, they have not agreed the terms and fighting continue. Trump has also given credit to take into account conflicts between India and Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Armenia, Iran and Israel, a brief skirmish between Thailand and Cambodia and a dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia that did not imply armed conflicts at all.

In the appearance of News on Tuesday, Trump said he has negotiated seven peace agreements, instead of the six he has been claiming lately. It was not clear immediately that the seventh war was talking.