Pick a side

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is dominating the headlines, but the media is ignoring former President Donald Trump’s history.

Trump, his family members, and his appointed officials all did extensive business with Russia. Trump: “I’ve always had very successful business relations with Russian.” Donald Trump Jr.: “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.” For example, Trump bought a Florida estate for $41 million and sold it to a Russian oligarch for $95 million.

The Mueller report included almost 200 pages documenting “numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign,” according to Time. com. The U.S. intelligence community concluded with “high confidence” that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential campaign to help elect Trump and hurt presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Trump: “I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

As president, Trump had at least 16 private conversations with Putin. Trump opposed economic sanctions against Russia and sought to reduce U.S. contributions to NATO (which he called “obsolete”).

Trump withheld $400 million in military aid to Ukraine to try to extort Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “do us a favor” by announcing a baseless investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden’s son. Trump described the call as “perfect.” He was impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate.

Trump’s initial reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was to praise Putin as “smart,” “savvy,” and “genius.”

As recently as April 5, 63 House Republicans voted against a resolution of support for NATO.

Whose side are they on?

David Campbell, Virginia Beach