Trump and Putin Have Been Allies Against Ukraine

Jonathan Chait: “Trump’s rise introduced to the Republican Party a figure who shared Putin’s perspective toward Ukraine and often echoed his propaganda. When Putin ginned up demonstrations in eastern Ukraine as a pretext to hive off chunks of land in 2014, Trump gushed, ‘So smart, when you see the riots in a country because they’re hurting the Russians, Okay, we’ll go and take it over…  You have to give him a lot of credit.’ After winning the nomination, Trump promised to consider recognizing Putin’s land seizure because ‘the people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were.'”

“Trump brought on Manafort to run his campaign, which further linked Ukraine’s conflict with Russia to the American domestic struggle. Ukrainians released a ‘black book’ of evidence of secret payments by the previous, pro-Russian regime, which implicated Manafort in an embezzling scandal for which he was eventually convicted. After it hacked Democratic emails and released them to aid Trump’s candidacy, Russia claimed it had been framed by Ukraine. Trump subsequently endorsed this theory.”