President Donald Trump's increasingly cozy relationship with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has drawn bipartisan outrage as well as criticism from the military, and a former State Department official recently explained why: It's complicated, but can be understood if you break down each part.
"We’ve seen that, Nicolle, for the better part of 10 years now: Take just the most recent example today: the release of Stephen Hubbard, something we all celebrate," former State Department official Ned Price told MS NOW anchor Nicolle Wallace on Wednesday. "Donald Trump, of course, is out there heralding this, as any president would, but then also going on to make the point that his administration gave Russia nothing in return. I think he actually used those words explicitly: 'nothing in return.'"
When Wallace made a face in response to Price's comment, he replied, "You made a face, and I make a face when I say it, because even if you rewind the clock 10 days and think about everything that President Trump has authorized to and for President Putin, the word “nothing” should not appear anywhere in that sentence. You can talk about the diesel deal that they announced. You can talk about the waiving of sanctions and tariffs in what was supposed to have been the Lindsey Graham bill, which Congress passed on a pretty bipartisan basis."
Price concluded, "He told Ukraine to stop hitting Russian oil and diesel refineries. He degraded, or at least someone did, intelligence sharing and technology that Ukraine used not to take offensive operations in Russia, or certainly anywhere else, but to defend itself. And he did ultimately what President Putin has been trying to do ever since February of 2022, for more than four years now: he called for Zelenskyy’s ouster. He said Zelenskyy should step down. That is precisely what President Putin has been calling for, and now you have the President of the United States calling for it himself. President Putin could not have scripted it any better."
Another foreign policy expert shares Price's view. Earlier in October, Fox News contributor and Hudson Institute senior fellow Rebecca Heinrichs said that "if the President wants to meet with Xi Jinping and Putin to talk about Ukraine, I think that would be a serious mistake. If you want to do something like Yalta [the conference which ended World War Two], then you have meetings among allies, the United States with the Europeans, with Ukraine, trying to figure out what to do about Russia."
Heinrichs added, "The Russians view the United States as its number one adversary, and they're trying to get the United States to back down and not support Zelensky...I think the best way to make progress is for the United States to actually move closer with the Europeans collectively. I think we can get something done here alongside Ukraine to pressure Russia. But if we're going to pressure the Russians, or if we can't pressure the Russians, I just don't think we're going to get to an end here."
