The Bloomberg Story Demonstrated Just How Much Some People Will Make Excuses For Trump
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Hi All,
I was writing a piece comparing the Trump and Biden Administration’s positions on Ukraine’s future when the Bloomberg story broke yesterday with transcripts of a conversation between Steve Witkoff and a Yuri Ushakov, a very senior Putin adviser. As such, I have made a quick pivot and will talk about that story, and release the Biden/Trump piece tomorrow (or the day after if my US readers want a break for Thanksgiving).
The Bloomberg piece was almost ideally and tragically timed to go with the piece I had released earlier in the day yesterday. This argued that people are so desperate to make excuses for Trump that are willing to court disaster.
Here is what that piece said about this phenomena when it comes specifcally to Trump, Russia and Ukraine.
And yet, what we hear is not outright condemnation of Trump and his frankly malevolent plans but, disconcertingly, a chorus of excuses on his behalf; attempts to say that he did not know and, ultimately was not responsible for the actions of his administration. The attempts to separate Trump from the catastrophes of his own administration’s actions is unprecedented. First it was said that this was some rogue operation by stupid and naive Steve Witkoff, who was freelancing and hoodwinked by the clever Russians.
Almost immediately after the Bloomberg story was written, the chorus of Trump excuses started again saying such things as: “Trump did not know about the 28-point plan” (laughable) or “Trump was fooled by Witkoff” (risible). This need to try and say that Trump was not and therefore ultimately is not responsible for the policies of his administration is deplorable and shows why Trump has been able to do so much damage as people sit by and make excuses for him. Just a few points to show why.
The Bloomberg story actually proves Trump was being kept in the loop. Witkoff would only be advising the Russians in this matter if Trump was going to be updated on the situation. Why would Witkoff be talking about how Trump should be approached, unless he knew Trump would be approached—on exactly these issues. So the whole context of the Witkoff-Ushakov discussion was predicated on Trump being consulted.
The reaction to the Bloomberg story shows Trump was more than happy with Witkoff’s behavior and indeed confirmed Witkoff’s role by saying he will soon be off
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