# Anyone else smell Trump had a hand in the Russian invasion of the Ukraine **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** ukraine-invasion, trump\ **Created:** [February 25, 2022, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-smell-trump-had-a-hand-in-the-russian-invasion-of-the-ukraine/960113 "2022-02-25T16:56:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-smell-trump-had-a-hand-in-the-russian-invasion-of-the-ukraine/960113/41 "2022-02-28T19:34:50Z")
Trump was/is a walking security nightmare. Had no regard whatsoever for secrecy or security classification. It’s possible that he gave away sensitive information just for horse-trading purposes, but it’s equally likely that he sat down in a meeting with Putin and started blabbing just to show that’s he’s a tough guy who knows stuff. I’m sure Putin played Trump like a fiddle: “Don… I can call you Don since we’re buddies, right? You know I’m interested in making Ukraine great again.” “Yeah sure whatever, I don’t give a shit. Hey have you got any more dirt on Crooked Hillary?” ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-smell-trump-had-a-hand-in-the-russian-invasion-of-the-ukraine/960113/42 "2022-02-28T19:35:25Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > I’ve wondered about this and wouldn’t put it past him. I could imagine him telling Putin to go ahead and invade Ukraine if Trump does not gain a second term, to make life harder for Biden (or whomever). Guys, I think I’ve figured out Putin’s motivation! “Russia, if you’re listening - I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing…” “The server, they say Ukraine has it” ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-smell-trump-had-a-hand-in-the-russian-invasion-of-the-ukraine/960113/43 "2022-02-28T23:54:38Z")
It’s unlikely that he masterminded it, or even suggested it. It’s possible that he game enough green-light signals to be counted as having had a small hand in it. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2022, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-smell-trump-had-a-hand-in-the-russian-invasion-of-the-ukraine/960113/44 "2022-03-01T00:04:59Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Trump is stupid, and can be manipulated through flattery and strength, which is I think what Putin did. I’m not sure Trump is stupid, but rather he was brought up with what we would consider a different moral compass which has defined how he views things. For instance most anyone can accept the sky is blue, and most ‘smart’ people could devote efforts to successfully explain. But for Trump, the sky is whatever color that complements Trump, and Trump is smart enough to get you to agree with him. If that be by extortion, threatening your family, suing you, getting you fired, gaslighting you, setting you up to take the fall for a crime, giving you money to sign a NDA, etc. Trump will have you agree with him and that is what his focus of mental energy on, and he does not care about spending the energy to think on what the color is. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2022, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-smell-trump-had-a-hand-in-the-russian-invasion-of-the-ukraine/960113/45 "2022-03-01T00:11:06Z")
> [@Mallard](#): > > Trump was quite anti NATO which would be favourable to Poutine IMHO. This is what probably best explains the delay in attacking Ukraine. Putin was hoping that Trump’s ham-handed diplomacy would actually result in NATO being severely weakened or outright destroyed as a treaty. When that never happened, and Trump lost the election, Putin figured he would have to do it the hard way. A year of build-up after that isn’t too surprising. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2022, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-smell-trump-had-a-hand-in-the-russian-invasion-of-the-ukraine/960113/46 "2022-03-01T22:53:11Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > I’m not sure Trump is stupid, but rather he was brought up with what we would consider a different moral compass which has defined how he views things. I’m pretty sure he’s just genuinely stupid, and your description does not seem to disagree with that. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2022, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-smell-trump-had-a-hand-in-the-russian-invasion-of-the-ukraine/960113/47 "2022-03-02T01:55:51Z")
Some of the posts in this thread imply that Trump was playing some kind of 3D chess. Trump is simply not capable of that. He can’t even play 2D chess and if there were a 1D chess he couldn’t play that either. Hell, I’d like to challenge him to a game of tic-tac-toe. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2022, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-smell-trump-had-a-hand-in-the-russian-invasion-of-the-ukraine/960113/48 "2022-03-02T02:43:06Z")
I think that if there is any connection with Trump, it is an indirect one, as in: Putin seeing how easy it was to control the right in many western nations. It would not surprise me that also Trump’s gross irresponsibilities with security and our allies made Putin overconfident about how divided the western nations would be, if Trump had not been there destroying alliances I do think that a lot of what we are seeing now would not have been seen as easy to do by Putin, and one big reason why he may have done it was thanks to the same misinformation bubble (that Russians also controlled in part) that also gave us Trump. It just so happened that the one that thought that was controlling the misinformation was in the end controlled by it too. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2022, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-smell-trump-had-a-hand-in-the-russian-invasion-of-the-ukraine/960113/49 "2022-03-02T02:54:54Z")
I’m quite confident that if Trump had been president during the past week, he would have ordered the invasion of Canada. ---
**Author:** ![dougrb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@dougrb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougrb)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2022, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-smell-trump-had-a-hand-in-the-russian-invasion-of-the-ukraine/960113/50 "2022-03-02T03:23:55Z")
More likely Hawaii. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2022, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-smell-trump-had-a-hand-in-the-russian-invasion-of-the-ukraine/960113/51 "2022-03-02T03:34:40Z")
Nah. Trump has hated Canada ever since Trudeau [beat him at his own grabby handshake style.](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2017/feb/14/donald-trumps-strange-handshake-style-and-how-justin-trudeau-beat-it-video-explainer) \< grab, shoulder stiff arm, grin like you’re going to eat his lunch \> Trumps gonads shriveled up into his abdomen after that one. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-smell-trump-had-a-hand-in-the-russian-invasion-of-the-ukraine/960113/52 "2022-03-04T04:10:46Z")
It was even better when Queen Elizabeth’s lady-in-waiting took on the Trump handshake challenge……because you _know_ the Queen put her up to it. > **[Donald Trump Gets Beat At His Tough-Guy Handshake Game By Queen’s Petite Lady...](https://www.inquisitr.com/4985405/donald-trump-handshake-queen-lady-in-waiting)** > > Donald Trump recently took to Twitter to reveal that golf is his “primary form of exercise,” but perhaps a recent encounter with a little old lady might have the American president rethinking his upper body workout routine. As reported by The Daily... ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-smell-trump-had-a-hand-in-the-russian-invasion-of-the-ukraine/960113/53 "2022-03-04T16:47:55Z")
The sort of intelligence required to play 3-D chess is irrelevant to Trump. Whether he was capable or not. 90% of life is showing up. That leaves the other 10%. Trump’s MO is that you, or whomever is doing business with him, will have default assumptions that he will perform certain tasks as part of socialization, as part of any standard bargain. Trump will not perform these tasks. That is his vig. Assumptions that you make that most people follow that he doesn’t. So if you play a Tic-Tac-Toe game with him, he’ll get people to believe that the game is rigged, or irrelevant, or get people to hate you for winning. Or something of that order. He lives off of other people doing work and making assumptions about a rational society that he never follows. He doesn’t play 3-D chess or 11-D chess, he exists outside rational space completely. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-smell-trump-had-a-hand-in-the-russian-invasion-of-the-ukraine/960113.md?page=2)