In a seemingly unplanned, chaotic media appearance Friday morning just outside his back door, President Trump told Fox News’ Steve Doocy that it was actually President Obama’s fault that Russia left the G-8 — not Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Doocy, interviewing Trump along the row of cameras right outside the White House’s West Wing, referenced the summit in Singapore, and asked, “while you did meet with Kim Jong-Un, it sounds like you and Mr. Putin may be sitting down sometime soon. What can you tell us about that?”
Trump was noncommittal about Doocy’s question, but then used the opportunity to attack President Obama’s administration, a familiar rhetorical safe harbor for the 45th president:
We may. It started because a reporter shouted to me, ‘should Putin be in the G-7?’ I said ‘no he should be in the G-8.’ It used to be the G-8 a few years ago, and I think President Obama didn’t like him, even though they gave advanced notice about the election to Obama, people forget about that. You know Obama was told by the CIA or somebody, FBI, about Russia. He didn’t do anything about it. How come he never gets blamed? In September just before the election, my election. He should have done, maybe I would have won by more.
The reason the United States and the other industrialized countries of the then-G-8 expelled Russia was because of Russia’s decision to annex sovereign territory from Ukraine — the Crimean peninsula. President Obama and other G-7 leaders said in a joint statement that Russia’s action “violates the principles upon which the international system is built.” It was not because, as Trump argued, Obama didn’t like Putin.
Trump also nonsensically argued that Russia gave Obama “advanced notice” about the 2016 election and this was a reason Obama should not have wanted Russia out of the G-8. Then Trump argued Obama was asleep at the wheel when the intelligence community warned him about Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 election. Which, if true, would not be an argument to readmit Russia into the G-7.
Later, in a promenade around the White House grounds which functioned as another rollicking media appearance, Trump returned to the subject when another reported asked him if he was planning to meet with Putin this summer.
“It’s possible that we’ll meet, yeah,” he said. “This all started because somebody, one of you, asked ‘should Putin be in the G-7?’ and I said ‘no, should be in the G-8.’ A few years ago, Putin was in what was called the G-8. I think it’s better to have Russia in than to have Russia out. Because just like North Korea, just like somebody else, it’s much better if we get along than if we don’t. So it’s possible.”
Even setting Crimea and the Ukraine aside, there are many reasons why the members of the G-7 would be very unlikely to agree to re-admitting Russia. The United Kingdom, France, and Germany have all, just like the United States, had to deal with Russia’s strong attempts to influence their domestic elections.
Trump could not resist blaming Obama again as he barreled along through the questions.
“Just so you understand, President Obama lost Crimea, just so you understand,” he said. “This was long before I got there. I want to make it so the fake news prints it properly. President Obama lost Crimea. It’s his fault. It’s his fault.”
Trump argued the same thing over the weekend, arguing that Crimea is Russian because people there speak Russian, and in the past has come close to essentially recognizing Russia’s claims to Crimea.
The gathered reporters exploded with follow-up questions. Trump continued explaining his geopolitical understanding, which comes down to Putin not respecting Obama:
Because Putin didn’t respect President Obama. President Obama lost Crimea, because President Putin didn’t respect President Obama, didn’t respect our country, and didn’t respect Ukraine. But President Obama, not Trump — when it’s my fault, I’ll tell you — but President Obama gave away… now, President Obama, by not going across the red line in the sand that he drew — I went across it, with the 59 missile hits — but President Obama, when he didn’t go across the red line, what he gave away, nobody even knows.
Just in case it wasn’t clear, Trump concluded: “One more time, President Obama gave away Crimea. That should have never happened.”
Setting aside the fact that Trump managed to mangle the “red line,” and “drawing a line in the sand” metaphors about Syrian chemical weapons, Trump also mischaracterized the history of Russia invading Crimea, the United States rallying the western alliance in response, Obama deciding not to intervene militarily, the United States imposing sanctions on Russia as punishment, and the actions the United States took to defend military incursions into the rest of Ukraine.
Trump’s argument is that history is not something that can be objectively viewed in a self-critical manner to learn something new about current circumstances — it’s just there to be hammered into an artifice that burnishes his reputation, respect, and judgment, mainly by sullying that of his political enemies.