so its impossible to say Russia wouldn’t invade Ukraine.
Yep, it is. Putin is one of those unpredictable guys too. But it would be a lot less likely given that he would have had no idea what the response would be. Biden virtually telegraphed what his response would be,
Trump was quite clear during his term that he wouldn’t defend the Ukrainian borders.
There is a difference between crossing the border (a minor incursion, as Biden called it) and a full-scale invasion to take over the entire country.
Thank You!! It’s amazing how some can just miss the obvious isn’t it.
Putin has played every President since GWB, except Trump but swoosh that fact goes right over some people’s heads. 
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I find it adorable all these wannabe strategists who think they know exactly what could have or should have been done.
Once Putin decided he was taking Ukraine, he was taking Ukraine. Neither Trump nor Biden would have deterred him for the simple reason the US has made it clear they aren’t risking nuclear war unless it’s a NATO country being attacked.
To claim Trump did deter him because he didn’t do it on Trump’s watch is ridiculous hindsight analysis.
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The spin here is dizzying.
We don’t have to wonder what Trump would do. We know.
Watch the clip.
From 2018.
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Yeah… the guy before him talked about it also.
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That was in 2016.
A better message at the very end of his term and after Crimea had been annexed.
2014
Halt in decline vs spend more?
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Here is 2011… Defense Secretary Gates talking about it.
The major difference Trump made is that he obsessed over the funding levels of other countries and thought of it in transactional terms (i.e. it was a big pot of money and he acted like the European countries were filling it with IOUs to the US).
Some think this genius negotiating tactics.
There is an actual name for it…funnily enough, given our current situation…it’s called “Soviet-style negotiation”.
The Soviets did it all the time…I once read a book on it describing how they negotiated the TV deal for the Moscow Olympics (this was before they invaded Afghanistan, of course).
It’s a tactic one can take…if it’s a pure transaction (I.e. paying for TV rights), there’s even a place for it.
Alliances aren’t pure transactions, though, which is why in my opinion such tactics caused more damage than the results they achieved.
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That is not accurate.
Trump pointed out the primary concern was and is energy. He points it out emphatically to an uncomfortable audience in the clip from breakfast in 2018. Trump was right on target.
It is also a fact he didn’t do it on Trump’s watch.
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Also a fact.
He didn’t…but that doesn’t mean Trump deterred him from doing it.
To believe so assumes a power America simply doesn’t have.
It doesn’t mean Trump didn’t.
It’s not a fact that it’s a “big pot of money, and Europe owes us”.
NATO is what it is because we wanted it that way.
It made the world of the Cold War bipolar.
A great power always wants as few enemies to deal with at a time as they can have.
The evidence is that he didn’t deter anything mainly because Putin spent his time during Trump’s administration getting ready to do it.
