"Former President Donald Trump continues to push a revisionist history when it comes to how he approached Ukraine and NATO while in the White House.
Trump, who has repeatedly mischaracterized how NATO functions and is funded, in a new statement on Monday said, "I hope everyone is able to remember that it was me, as President of the United States, that got delinquent NATO members to start paying their dues, which amounted to hundreds of billions of dollars.""
Frequently bashed NATO? Trump did more than that. Trump also discussed pulling the US out of NATO with his administration not once, but multiple times.
Trump also refused to affirm article 5 of NATO, which states members must come to the aid of another if they are attacked, which is the core of NATO! Trump eventually did a 180 on this when he started to take political heat for it.
Trump was, and always will be, a puppet for Putin.
Trump praised Putin constantly, called him a "strong leader", has peddled statements like "he's done a really great job outsmarting our country" (source)
Trump dismissed and cast doubt about Russian hacking, particularly when the U.S determined that Russia hacked the DNC in 2016, while ironically enough, he encouraged Russian cyber attacks on national TV saying, "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," (source)
When addressing Russian election interference and cyber attacks, Trump proclaimed "I don't see any reason why it would be Russia" after speaking directly with Putin, defending Russia and trusting Putin over our own intelligence agencies. Later he "corrected" himself, claiming that he meant to say "wouldn't" instead of would (source)
Trump suggested the U.S. work directly with Russia on cybersecurity (source)
Almost directly after the 2016 election, Trump sought to weaken U.S. sanctions on Russia, while he was even open to lifting sanctions (source)
Trump dismissed the notion that Putin was a "killer", downplaying the idea that Putin resorts to using violence and oppressive tactics to crush political opponents. He defended Putin, rationalizing his ruthless despotism in the process, declaring, "There are a lot of killers. Do you think our country is so innocent?" (source)
Trump shared highly classified U.S. intelligence with Russian officials in the Oval Office in 2017 (source)
Trump repeated Kremlin talking points related to the Russian annexation of Crimea, reiterating things like, "The people of Crimea, from what I've heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were." (source)
Trump constantly attacked NATO, aligning himself with Putin (source)
Trump thanked Putin for expelling hundreds of U.S. diplomats as a retaliation for sanctions (source)
Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum while Republicans were working on a deal with Oleg Deripaska, one of Putin’s most trusted oligarchs, on an aluminum plant in Kentucky (source)
According to congressional testimony, Trump declined to publicly condemn a Russian attack against Ukrainian military vessels in November 2018, even though the State Department prepared a statement for him (source)
Trump congratulated and gave legitimacy to Putin's re election win in 2018, a victory said to "lack genuine competition" (source)
Sergei Skripal, an ex Russian spy that defected to the UK, was poisoned. Sanctions were announced, Trump attempted to rescind them, while asserting that the U.S. was being "too tough on Putin" (source)
When congress passed new sanctions against Russia in 2017, Trump was very reluctant to signing the bill, and probably wouldn't have signed it if the bill didn't pass with veto-proof majorities in both houses (source)
In 2017 it was reported that Trump was considering returning spy bases to Russia (source)
Trump praised and highlighted pro-Russian leaders in Europe. Far right European leaders with close ties to Putin. He even met a Kremlin ally at the Whitehouse (source)
When Trump withdrew troops from Syria, it gave Russia and Putin an opportunity to control abandoned U.S. outposts and checkpoints (source)
Trump froze U.S. aide for Ukraine in it's war against Russian proxies. He repeated Russian disinformation surrounding Ukraine as well (source)
Trump made requests to bring Russia back into the G7 and invited Putin to the 2020 G7 summit (source)
Trump Takes Credit For NATO — And Is Promptly Reminded Of A Few Pesky Facts
"“I hope everyone is able to remember that it was me, as President of the United States, that got delinquent NATO members to start paying their dues, which amounted to hundreds of billions of dollars. There would be no NATO if I didn’t act strongly and swiftly. Also, it was me that got Ukraine the very effective anti-tank busters (Javelins) when the previous Administration was sending blankets. Let History so note!” Trump bragged."
History has already noted that the thing about NATO members not paying their dues is false. Nor did they owe the US money.
He also cut US contributions to NATO and threated to withdraw the US. Tried to mend relationships with Russia, but NATO said no because Russia did the exact same thing in Crimea (read the right column, it also happened around the same time of year) they're trying to do now in Ukraine.
Trump also resisted the sale of Javelins.
It wasn't 'just blankets' The Obama admin sent the $250 million assistance package that the Trump administration announced (then froze and later unfroze) included many of the same items that were provided under Obama, including medical equipment, night vision gear and counter-artillery radar.
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