Trump and MAGA Republicans: A Threat to National Security

The recent NATO meetings in Helsinki, Finland, and Vilnius, Lithuania, contrasted with a meeting in Helsinki five years ago and ongoing efforts by MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives to block further aid to Ukraine underscore the reality that the GOP under Trump and his acolytes is the party of Vladimir Putin and international despots and no friend of democracy either here in the USA or across the globe. Five years ago Trump did everything but give Putin public fellatio - causing many to still wonder what blackmail material Putin has on Trump - and put the word of a now international war criminal over the findings of America's intelligence community.  The late John McCain described Trump's self-prostitution to Putin as “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.”  Trump and his MAGA minions should be anathema to anyone who cares about America's national security even as these individuals lie and describe themselves as "patriots" while spouting Putin's talking points. The reality is that these people are traitors in our midst and as the 2024 elections approach decent Americans need to understand that a vote for a MAGA Republican (I would argue for any Republican candidate) is ultimately a vote against democracy and a vote against America's national security.  A column in the Washington Post by a former Republican looks at the contrast between five years ago and today under the Biden administration.  Here are highlights:

If you want to know the differences on national security between Democrats and MAGA Republicans, it all boils down to one word: Helsinki.

Five years ago, on July 16, 2018, President Donald Trump met in the capital of Finland with Russian President Vladimir Putin. There he delivered what Sen. John McCain called “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.” Standing next to Putin at a news conference, Trump refused to condemn Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election or even to admit that it had occurred. This came a little more than a year after Trump had attended a NATO summit in Brussels at which he refused to affirm the alliance’s Article 5 collective security guarantee. (He later reluctantly endorsed Article 5 but continued to criticize the alliance relentlessly.)

On Thursday, President Biden visited Helsinki for a very different purpose. He came not to kowtow before Putin but to stand up to him — and not to undermine NATO but to strengthen it. This visit was meant to celebrate Finland’s recent accession to membership in the alliance, and it came shortly after Biden’s attendance at a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, where the alliance showed greater unity than at any time in recent history. Ukraine did not get a timeline for joining the alliance, but Sweden broke through the Turkish roadblock to its membership, and the allies signaled resolve in aiding Ukraine and bringing it closer to the alliance.

“I’ve been doing this a long time. I don’t think NATO’s ever been stronger,” Biden said during a meeting with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto. He’s right, and he deserves a world of credit for that achievement. Biden has shown more skill at marshaling an international coalition than any U.S. president since George H.W. Bush during the 1991 Gulf War.

Biden has often dragged his feet on aid to Ukraine for fearing of triggering World War III, but over and over again he has done the right thing in the end, supplying everything from Stinger and Javelin missiles to M777 howitzers to HIMARS multiple-launch rocket systems to Patriot air defense batteries to Bradley fighting vehicles to cluster munitions.

It’s safe to say that none of that would have happened if Trump had still been in the White House. Just this week, Trump expressed opposition to Biden’s decision to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions — a type of munition that the Russians have used in abundance. Trump argues that Biden is “dragging us further toward World War III by sending cluster munitions to Ukraine” and boasts that he could end the war in a day. To which former vice president Mike Pence replied: “The only way you’d solve this war in a day is if you gave Vladimir Putin what he wanted.”

[T]here is a large and growing faction in the GOP that is hostile to U.S. global leadership and to assistance for Ukraine. A recent Pew Research Center poll showed that 44 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said the United States is sending too much assistance to Ukraine compared to only 14 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.

The MAGA Republicans would rather wage culture wars at home than support Ukraine’s war of territorial defense against Russian aggression. Members of the House Freedom Caucus are offering amendments to the defense authorization bill making its way through Congress, demanding that the United States cut back or eliminate aid to Ukraine and even leave NATO. Meanwhile, the Marine Corps is now without a confirmed commandant for the first time in 164 years because Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) has put a hold on hundreds of nominations for senior officers to protest a Pentagon policy enabling service members and their families to travel to states where abortion is legal to have the procedure performed.

The very real possibility that Trump could win back the presidency in 2024 fills U.S. allies with dread — and offers hope to U.S. enemies. John Bolton, who was Trump’s national security adviser, has said Trump came close to pulling out of NATO in 2018 and would do so if elected to another term. It’s also a good bet that Trump would try to stop the flow of U.S. weapons to Ukraine. Indeed, the very prospect that Trump could return to office encourages Putin to prolong the conflict. . . . from the Kremlin’s perspective, “the main thing” is that Biden (“the guy with dementia”) not win reelection.

So, if you believe in making America, rather than Russia, “great again,” it’s imperative for Biden to win in 2024 and maintain the policies that have so greatly strengthened NATO and Ukraine. As long as the MAGA wing remains as strong as it is, Republicans cannot be trusted on national security policy.

The author's final paragraph is 100% correct and anyone who is a true patriotic American should vote against the party of Trump and Putin in 2024 (and 2023 here in Virginia).