Of all the lies that Donald Trump has told while in office, which totals more than five thousand to be exact, his spin on being “the toughest president on Russia in history” is one of the most obvious. No matter how many times Trump says it, it just isn’t true.
This country went through a Cold War with Russia for many years and numerous U.S. presidents were forced to try to contain the spread of Communism. Most recently, President Obama imposed sanctions on Russia for the murder of a dissenting journalist named Sergei Magnitsky as well as the country’s cyberattacks on the 2016 presidential elections, attacks that continue today. Obama expelled Russian diplomats and called out President Vladimir Putin for his actions.
Trump, on the other hand, refused to impose sanctions voted on almost unanimously by Congress for nearly a year, stood next to Putin in Helsinki and insisted that he believed him over our own intelligence agencies regarding Russia’s cyberattacks, lifted sanctions on Russian banks, and has repeatedly refused to acknowledge Russia’s role in meddling in the elections.
Now, Trump is pulling troops out of Syria unexpectedly and without informing any of his cabinet officials that he intended to do so. His own defense secretary, Gen. James Mattis, resigned in protest. Yet, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders appeared on Fox & Friends on Saturday morning to insist that any claim that Russia is happy about the decision is fake news. Even the hosts of Fox & Friends blasted her comments.
There’s a good reason that they refused to believe her lies, directed by the president himself. President Putin has already stated during a press conference that he is happy with the decision to pull troops from Russia, fully supports it, and said that the U.S. presence in Syria was never legitimate anyway.
That is not being “tough on Russia.” It’s kowtowing to Putin.
Twitter called out Trump for his lies, as well. Read some of their comments below:
Featured image via Flickr by Gage Skidmore under a Creative Commons license
