On today's CNN This Morning, there was scant support for President Trump's comments yesterday on Ukraine, in which he arguably blamed Ukraine for Russia's invasion. The leftists are acting stunned that Trump wants Europe to carry more of its own weight on defense....when that's exactly what Trump said in his first term!
New York Times podcaster Lulu Garcia-Navarro acted like NATO was being dissolved or something.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Are we looking at a complete change in who our traditional allies are? This is the question that I keep on asking myself. Who are America's allies now? When you are praising Vladimir Putin and you are offending Canada, the European Union, Panama.
JIM SCIUTTO: Denmark over Greenland.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. This becomes the broader question of who is the United States actually allying themselves with? And what does that actually mean for our security in the world?
Sciutto claimed "that this was not just Europe worrying about Trump abandoning Ukraine. It's Europe worried about Trump abandoning Europe." Lulu and Jim prefer more of a global socialist Davos-buddy alliance, where everyone agrees about climate and wokeness.
Jonah Goldberg of The Dispatch said that while Trump has a "goldfish's memory" of history, he subscribes to a 19th-century notion of spheres of influence. "He thinks NATO is basically a protection racket or a country club, and they're not paying enough dues to him. They're not kicking up to the boss enough. But he sees Xi and Putin as basically rival crime families, and they deserve respect because they are equal strongmen."
Goldberg even claimed Trump's view is "They get Taiwan, they get Ukraine, we get Panama."
This was not a new schtick for Jim Sciutto, who's filling in this week for Kasie Hunt. In 2020, he tossed pro-Biden softballs at Gen. Michael Hayden: "What happens to U.S. Alliances such as the NATO alliance in a second Trump term?" Hayden argued: “If it's a second term, I think we will be alone. We will not have any friends at all.”
Sciutto also leveled a loaded question today at Republican strategist Kristen Soltis Anderson: "Do Republican voters like to see the U.S. President endorsing Kremlin talking points?"
Anderson answered with a flat "no." But she went on to make the point that Americans, including even Democrats, are beginning to wonder what the end-game is in Ukraine. Thus Republicans are willing to grant Trump some "leeway" in how he handles the matter.
One thing the panel didn't mention was Zelensky having said that Putin is "scared' of Trump, and that Trump can thus force him to negotiate.
If Kamala Harris had won, odds Zelensky would have said that Putin was scared of her? About the same as Free Lutheran Bible College winning the NCAA basketball championship.
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
2/19/25
6:20 am ETLULU GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, there's, I think, a wider issue here about what is Donald Trump's foreign policy? What are we looking at here? Are we looking at a complete change in who our traditional allies are? This is the question that I keep on asking myself. Who are America's allies now? When you are praising Vladimir Putin and you are offending Canada, the European Union, Panama.
JIM SCIUTTO: Denmark over Greenland.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. This becomes the broader question of who is the United States actually allying themselves with? And what does that actually mean for our security in the world?
SCIUTTO: I mean, that is the thing that, Jonah, that came out of Munich, right, is that this was not just Europe worrying about Trump abandoning Ukraine. It's Europe worried about Trump abandoning Europe. And by the way, saying so, in so many words: Europe, it's up to you right now. Which was the worry prior to the election. I heard it frequently, and now this is the reality they're dealing with.
JONAH GOLDBERG: Yeah, I want to be real clear. I think that Donald Trump has a goldfish's memory of historical, you know, stuff. But he is very similar to a 19th-century imperial leader. That when you talk about his allies, I think he goes from, he subscribes organically, instinctually, to a 19th-century notion of spheres of influence, where we're the boss of the Americas and Western Europe, and we can boss them around, and we can treat our allies as really like underlings, because this is our zone. Putin has his zone. He's another strong man. Xi has his zone.
And that's one of the things that helps explain why Trump likes to talk, why he heaps praise on dictators and adversaries while heaping scorn on friends, is that he thinks our friends are actually subordinates.
SCIUTTO: Right.
GOLDBERG: He thinks NATO is basically a protection racket or a country club, and they're not paying enough dues to him. They're not kicking up to the boss enough.
But he sees Xi and Putin as basically rival crime families, and they deserve respect because they are equal strongmen.
SCIUTTO: And perhaps a recognition of their own spheres of influence and the U.S. then ceding them, which would be --
GOLDBERG: They get Taiwan, they get Ukraine, we get Panama.
SCIUTTO: It would be a dramatic upset of what had been bipartisan U.S. policy and approach to the world for 80 years, right? Going back to World War II.
