Its also been widely reported that when Trump first met Putin he said if he invaded Ukraine, he would turn Moscow and several other cities into a parking lot. Trump in several interviews has said he warned Putin not to do it, that he would pay a very, very heavy cost and he would see to it that he would.
This is all Trump had to do.
He was able to leverage the media's reporting on him that he was reckless, dangerous and prone to rash behavior and they were convinced he was going to start WWIII with? Yeap, you guessed it, the Russians. Putin believed what the media were reporting because Trump himself had verbally warned him.
He didn't need forces and cash. He did what OP recommended, he threatened Putin with force and Putin complied and just waited out Trump. It was a gift that Biden was elected in 2020 and if you go through the news reports, literally months after Biden was elected, Russia started massing troops on the border and readying their troops to invade. Its a strange coincidence that they didn't invade in the four years Trump was in office. He leaves and less than a year later, Russia is preparing to invade? C'mon man.
Your timeline is completely wrong.
- Biden's inauguration took place on January 2021.
- The Russians were amassing troops by December of 2021 (less than a year after he took office).
- The Afghan pullout wasn't until the Summer of 2021
- The Russian officially invaded in February of 2022
The green light wasn't needing forces and cash built up, it was Trump leaving office. The Afghan pullout had no effect on when they were going to invade since they were already massing troops and air support to the border regions where they finally launched their invasion from. Its not like the Russians decided to invade during the Afghan disaster as you insinuated, the invasion plans were already established by then.
Again, the tipping point was Trump leaving office.
He said if he invaded Ukraine, he would turn Moscow and several other cities into a parking lot.
Which means it's a lie.
This is extremely bellicose language, and completely inconsistent with Trump's statements and general deportment towards Putin in all other respects. We have video footage of that meeting - you can see both men completely at ease with each other, and Putin positively smiling. That's not the vibe you get when one of the two men had just told (or was about to tell) the other that they were considering turning their major cities into parking lots.
If he actually said anything at all to Putin about it, most likely it was quite different (something on the order of "Don't escalate the situation in Ukraine, that will have serious negative consequences"). But that's too boring for his voting public. So (with no transcript available for anyone to fact-check) he pulled a statement out his hind quarters ("turn Moscow into a parking lot") that he thought his own people would prefer that he said.
Because that's how he rolls.
The Afghan pullout had no effect on when they were going to invade since they were already massing troops and air support to the border regions where they finally launched their invasion from.
Let's go over the chronology that you yourself just provided:
The Afghan pullout wasn't until the Summer of 2021
The Russians were amassing troops by December of 2021
You clearly don't understand the psychology of dictators or people who are in positions of extreme power. The only language they know is that kind of direct, "bellicose" language as you refer to it.
Trump understood this and simply used the same language and approach to Putin.
Of course he wouldn't do it. If you know anything about Trump, he's the most anti-war president we've ever had. He was very outspoken against both Iraq invasions, against the Afghan invasions and now that he's be elected again, has said he will end the Ukrainian conflict and the conflict in Israel. He also pulled out most of our military out of the middle east when he was in office.
You would've thought the millions of Liberals who were against any wars in the middle east would be ecstatic to have him in office. Or have you already forgotten all the "No war for oil!!" and "Bush lied, people died!" bumper stickers and slogans the media and Liberals continually chanted during those years??
But it doesn't count because Trump is a Republican? Now there's some pro level hubris.
“They're all saying oh he's a nuclear power, it's like they're afraid of him,” Trump said in a recording of the phone conversation with Daly. “You know, he was a friend of mine, I got along great with him. I say, Vladimir, if you do it, we're hitting Moscow. We're going to hit Moscow. And he sort of believed me like 5 per cent, 10 per cent - that's all you need.”
He's also said the same thing in several interview. That he told Putin he would make it very difficult to take Ukraine and it cost them economically and militarily. You can infer that meant could mean several things depending on your point of view.
> Its also been widely reported that when Trump first met Putin he said if he invaded Ukraine, he would turn Moscow and several other cities into a parking lot.
Yeah. Trump talks a lot. Like his best friend, Melon.
This is all Trump had to do.
He was able to leverage the media's reporting on him that he was reckless, dangerous and prone to rash behavior and they were convinced he was going to start WWIII with? Yeap, you guessed it, the Russians. Putin believed what the media were reporting because Trump himself had verbally warned him.
He didn't need forces and cash. He did what OP recommended, he threatened Putin with force and Putin complied and just waited out Trump. It was a gift that Biden was elected in 2020 and if you go through the news reports, literally months after Biden was elected, Russia started massing troops on the border and readying their troops to invade. Its a strange coincidence that they didn't invade in the four years Trump was in office. He leaves and less than a year later, Russia is preparing to invade? C'mon man.
Your timeline is completely wrong.
- Biden's inauguration took place on January 2021.
- The Russians were amassing troops by December of 2021 (less than a year after he took office).
- The Afghan pullout wasn't until the Summer of 2021
- The Russian officially invaded in February of 2022
The green light wasn't needing forces and cash built up, it was Trump leaving office. The Afghan pullout had no effect on when they were going to invade since they were already massing troops and air support to the border regions where they finally launched their invasion from. Its not like the Russians decided to invade during the Afghan disaster as you insinuated, the invasion plans were already established by then.
Again, the tipping point was Trump leaving office.