The ‘Morning Joe’ panel has claimed that President Donald Trump’s questionable stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict came about simply because he personally dislikes Volodymyr Zelensky, and likes hard man Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.
The MSNBC show dived into news that Trump wants the G7 to use softer language when referring to Russia’s role in the war, despite the fact that they quite literally started it when Putin’s forces invaded exactly three years ago on Monday.
Eugene Robinson, associate editor of The Washington Post and the network’s political analyst, said some people think Trump is free-styling his approach to the conflict and isn’t actually committed to his current pro-Russian stance. “This is insane, but you talk about it as maybe an opening bid. People are saying, ‘this is Trump being Trump’ or whatever,” he said.
“I don’t see why anyone should not believe him. He likes Vladimir Putin. He can’t stand Volodymyr Zelensky. We know that. You know, how much of foreign policy, domestic policy, how much of life is just personal to Donald Trump, his own grievances, his own petty slights that he believes he experienced and, I think he fully intends to follow through with this new, completely disastrous approach for American policy that he has outlined in the last few days.”
Host Joe Scarborough agreed that Trump deals in his own personal likes and dislikes in the political arena. “All things are personal with Donald Trump. Foreign policy is personal with Donald Trump. If he decides that he likes the most bloodthirsty dictator on earth in North Korea and they write love letters, he calls them love letters, everything is personal.”
Scarborough also suggested that Trump “loathes” Zelensky because he refused to “dig up dirt” on Joe Biden in return for U.S. financial support to Ukraine. “It is so important to remember how Donald Trump’s relationship with Zelensky began. It began in July of 2019 when he made the quote, ‘perfect phone call,’ where he was trying to shake down Zelensky to dig up dirt on his political rival, Joe Biden and his family, while he was in the middle of a presidential campaign.”
He continued: “[He was] basically saying, ‘you can get your $400 million that Congress has already appropriated, but before you do, I need you to dig up dirt on Joe Biden.’ Zelensky refused to do that. And if some people don’t understand why he loathes Zelensky so much, that’s a good place to start.”
