On Tuesday night in a back and forth with reporters in Florida, President Donald said the following to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky:
You’ve been there for three years … You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.
“You should have never started it.”
No, dear reader, you didn’t read that wrong. This is, quite simply, Donald Trump trying to re-write history to fit his preferred outcomes.
As you will remember — it was less than 3 years ago! — Russia invaded Ukraine. Here’s how CNN covered the invasion on February 24, 2022:
Russia has launched an unprecedented military assault on Ukraine by land, air and sea that has already left dozens dead, prompting Western leaders to condemn Moscow and vow unity with Kyiv.
Ukrainian ministers said the Kremlin had begun a “full-scale invasion” of their country, and the fighting appears to be some of the worst conventional warfare Europe has seen since World War II and the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s. Markets across the globe plunged.
Like, that happened. Period. Full stop.
I mean, even the Rupert-Murdoch-owned New York Post is rolling its eyes here: “Hello: Ukraine is the victim of this war, not too mention our ally,” the Post editorial board wrote Wednesday. “And the president’s off-the-cuff remarks about Zelensky late Tuesday were wildly off-base…. [Zelensky] didn’t start it, and he’s had no chance to end it except by surrendering to the blood-soaked invader: Whatever negotiating tactics Trump cares to use, turning the truth completely upside down ought to be beneath him.”
Correct.
Why is Trump trying to change what we know happened? Because he wants a win. Trump promised to end the Russia-Ukraine war on the campaign trail — and he is going to do so come hell or high water.
He sees the path to the quickest deal through negotiating directly with Russia and then presenting the deal to Ukraine as a take-it-or-leave-it situation.
And the best way to do that is to make Ukraine look like they are in the wrong somehow. The war has gone on too long! They should have cut a deal by now! And, uh, they started it!
Again, this is demonstrably false. But Trump has always told himself — and his supporters — the story he prefers as opposed to the real story. He’s doing it again — this time on the world stage.
But, facts are pesky things. Or at least they should be.
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