Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump seems to have had a falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Maybe Putin decided that he doesn't want Trump Tower Moscow after all. Is the souring of their relationship permanent or is Trump angry about something and it will be over tomorrow? Who knows. Putin is at least consistent. Trump is not.
In the past, Trump has blamed Ukraine and Russia equally for the war in Ukraine. If only the Ukrainians hadn't fought back, there would not have been a war. His view has changed. He said: "And I will say this, the Ukrainians, whether you think it's unfair that we gave all that money or not, they were very brave because somebody had to operate that stuff. And a lot of people I know wouldn't be operating it." We have no idea what that means, but it does credit the Ukrainians for being brave. It also shows that Trump has no idea how the military aid worked. Joe Biden did not sign a check for $50 billion and have Tony Blinken hand-deliver it to Volodymyr Zelenskyy for deposit in the Bank of Ukraine. What happened was Biden gave contracts to defense companies like General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, etc., to produce weapons in American factories staffed with American workers. The finished weapons and munitions were then shipped to Ukraine. Virtually all the "money for Ukraine" was spent in America, creating jobs at home.
What is interesting, though, is that Trump's souring on Putin may have some real-world effects. Previously, Trump had no interest in saving Ukraine. If Putin wanted it for lunch, so be it. Now he seems to have changed his mind and is willing to help Ukraine, but with a catch. It isn't about the grift, but it is grift-adjacent. Instead of giving the weapons produced by the defense contractors to Ukraine, he now wants NATO countries to buy the weapons, take possession of them, and then give them to Ukraine. The difference is that now the U.S. can make money off the war in Ukraine by selling weapons and munitions to NATO members instead of giving them away for free. If you turn the war in Ukraine into a profit center, Trump is suddenly interested. NATO allies in Europe have a lot more skin in the game than Trump, so they are probably willing to go along for the time being. In the longer run, NATO countries in Europe are going to ramp up their own defense industries and produce their own weapons (to the detriment of the U.S. defense industry), but that will take years.
Details are still being worked out. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has been on the phone constantly with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (to make sure no trans or gay people get any weapons) and with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine, who actually understands war and weaponry. Rutte is also in contact with European ministers of defense to work out who will buy what and when. Germany and Norway have already said they will buy Patriot surface-to-air missiles. They are made by Raytheon. However, the ones being sold now will have to come from stockpiles because it can take up to 3 years to build a full Patriot battery. A full Patriot battery can cost up to $1 billion.
Rutte will visit Trump in D.C. today to tell him how brilliant his plan is and that only a stable genius at Trump's level could possibly have thought of it. Rutte has that down pat. He will discuss which weapons NATO members want to buy and other details. Rutte will also meet with other officials and members of Congress. In particular, he will have dinner with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) to discuss their bill that would impose severe sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil.
This change of heart (if possible) from Trump makes a certain amount of sense. For years he has complained that NATO allies didn't spend enough on defense. This new strategy will force them to start spending big time on defense very quickly, long before they can build defense plants. So far, there hasn't been any public pushback from European countries about the plan. They have long realized that they will have to ramp up defense spending. They just didn't expect it to happen so quickly. (V)