Concerns about Trump’s popularity are allayed by the United States’ united stance on Russia’s attack, writes ‘s US correspondent Iida Tikka.
ORLANDO, FLORIDA. The U.S. Conservative meeting on Saturday once again showed that the best controller of populist politicians is ultimately popular opinion. This is especially true of security policy, which is not affected by domestic disputes.
First, a couple of things about the former president of the United States Donald Trumpista.
During his presidency, Trump repeatedly downplayed the importance of international cooperation and openly flirted with the idea of withdrawing the United States from the Alliance NATO.
In 2019, Trump tried to blackmail Ukraine in pursuit of its own political advantage. After the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi Trump demanded that Zelenskyi launch a politically motivated investigation into, among other things, President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden Ukraine connections. The case led to Trump’s first civil trial, which ended in the Republican Senate acquitting Trump.
After meeting in Russia Vladimir Putin In Helsinki in 2018, Trump made it clear that he believed Putin’s word rather than his own intelligence services.
When Russia recognized Ukraine’s separatist territories as independent states last week, Trump praised Putin in a radio interview. As late as Tuesday, Trump considered the Russian military a “strong peacekeeping force”.
Yesterday Saturday the message had changed when Trump spoke to his supporters at a Conservative meeting in Orlando.
Trump explained his statement, saying that while Putin’s actions are witty, the attack on Ukraine is an insult to humanity.
According to Trump, no similar attack would have taken place if he had been president – Putin would not have dared. The former president says sanctions are the wrong response to hostilities, though Trump did not say what his option would have been.
“Putin is playing Biden like a drum,” Trump said, making the audience cheer.
The best explanation for the change of mind can be found in the aisles of the convention center.
Proponents of Trump condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine in the same way as other Americans. Trump read the situation correctly, focusing on barking instead of praising Bidenia Putin.
– Although our country is politically well divided, the whole of the United States unites our support for Ukraine, said Trump’s supporter Mary Edwards putting into words the idea of many conference attendees.
He is right: in recent days, the Americans, with the exception of the individual gravel sounds of extremes, may have reached an agreement on something for the first time in many years.
That in itself is not surprising.
Security policy has been an arena for inter-party cooperation in the United States for decades, leveled by a non-political military leadership.
Although conservatives and liberals have seen the threats differently, they have led to the same solution.
Of particular significance to this relatively common foreign policy was the 1990s, when the United States decided to become a winner of the Cold War and the world’s leading superpower.
Liberals saw, for example, ethnic conflicts and the status of new, fragile democracies on the world stage as threats to the future. They wanted to strengthen the role of the UN by developing its cooperation with NATO. Conservatives – and some liberal politicians like the Czech background Madeleine Albright – were concerned about the threat to Russia.
Everyone was worried about nuclear weapons.
The outcome of the debate was the widely supported enlargement of NATO.
No one can knowhow Ukraine’s attack would have progressed if Trump had been president.
However, concerns about the future of the international escape front are justified. Sanctions against Russia have come to stay, but they also require the active commitment of future leaders.
Trump is a favorite of Republican voters to run for president in the 2024 election, and allies do not trust Trump’s uneven foreign policy. Already this year, the United States is holding an interim election in which a new wave of Republican politicians advocating Trump’s line is likely to rise to Congress.
They are being led by a electorate that, at least right now, is calling for tougher action against Russia.
For now, Europe can sigh with relief.