UPSIDE DOWN: Trump falsely claims credit for NATO’s and Ukraine’s stand against Putin
Nobody ever claimed that Donald Trump isn’t completely shameless. One would have to be in order to issue the kind of statement that Trump issued in a press release this morning giving himself full credit for the continued existence of NATO in the face of Vladimir Putin’s reckless invasion of Ukraine.
Yes, the man who nearly tore asunder the European-American security alliance during his tenure as president of the United States with his faithless attacks on our long-standing allies and his bitching about the unequal burden of the costs of running NATO is now desperately seeking attention again by trying to make the story of the newly revitalized coalition standing up to Russian aggression all about himself.
Trump goes out of his way to remind the world that he was the one who pressured “delinquent NATO members” to catch up on the dues owed to the alliance with the implicit threat that he would unilaterally withdraw the U.S. from its treaty-bound obligations to NATO.
The tarnished former president was seemingly seeking an ego boost with his historical legacy on his mind as he sought credit for sending arms — including Javelin anti-tank missiles — to Ukraine, conveniently forgetting the extortionist phone calls he made to that country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky seeking to trade U.S. military aid for a politically-motivated investigation into then-presidential rival Joe Biden.
Social media users who saw Trump’s press release were not as forgetful as the hubris-filled ex-president.
They lambasted him in the comments section with forceful reminders of the role he played in enabling Putin’s illegal war of aggression against its neighbor.
Trump, who discussed pulling the US from NATO takes credit for NATO’s existence in a new statement. Trump, who threatened to withhold weapons funding from Ukraine to get dirt on Biden, takes credit for Ukrainian weapons in same statement. pic.twitter.com/OvyorRtHmh
— Sam Stein (@samstein) February 28, 2022
https://twitter.com/avg_joseph/status/1498316121283473409?s=20&t=r5XlXU5y4RkqQW7Rj82gOg
SO NOTED!!!
— Mr.CommonSense (@echoi1128) February 28, 2022
You denigrated our allies & threatened to withdraw from NATO which led the House of Representatives in 2019 to pass the NATO Support Act (H.R. 676) confirming Congress' support for the organization & prohibiting the Trump Administration from potentially withdrawing from it. pic.twitter.com/CUeLU1mJB9
— Mark Lynn (@MarkMottLynn3) February 28, 2022
Nobody was looking to the US for leadership during trump.With good reason
— Hitchhiker (@mrbig4555) February 28, 2022
While there were plenty more comments in a similar vein, one could hardly find a single post responding to Trump’s NATO press release that supported his arrogant assertions.
Perhaps Trump’s supporters have all left Twitter to join him on his new Truth Social platform?
Or perhaps they have grown tired of defending the indefensible and are growing as weary of his egomaniacal outbursts as the rest of us have been for years already.
Either way, Trump would be best served in the historical record that he is apparently so belatedly concerned about by simply keeping his mouth firmly shut, particularly when it comes to NATO. Let the testimony in his hopefully upcoming criminal trials serve as the record of his presidency and his legacy.
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Vinnie Longobardo is the Managing Editor of Occupy Democrats. He's a 35-year veteran of the TV, mobile & internet industries, specializing in start-ups and the international media business. His passions are politics, music, and art.