A missed opportunity to set the record straight

“Tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are,” is how the old proverb goes. If it’s true, then it would appear that former president Donald Trump’s character is questionable, at best. Since the presidency, there have been mutterings about his friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. If we’re being honest, it was evident that Trump admired Putin. He described him in glowing terms and refused to denounce him or admit that what he was doing was evil, when he decided to wage an unprovoked, unjustified war on Ukraine.

During an April interview on Fox News, Sean Hannity, the host of the show, said the following to Trump: “I asked you the last time you were on, whether you think that this is evil in our time?”

Instead of answering the spoonfed question that would have allowed Trump to denounce Putin’s actions, the former president avoided it, instead going on a rant about NATO.

“I think in a hundred years, people are gonna look back and they’re going to say, ‘How did we stand back, and NATO stand back?’ — which, in many ways, I’ve called a paper tiger,” Trump responded.

“Don’t forget, I rebuilt NATO. Because when I became president the first thing I noticed when I went there for the first meeting was that most of the countries were not paying, or were paying far less than they were supposed to ...”

Trump goes on and on in the interview, but never did answer the question. It would have been the perfect opportunity for him to set the record straight and prove that he did not condone Putin’s actions.

So why is his friendship with Putin relevant? Aside from the obvious, Trump has not been banned from Russia.

Because the United States has supported Ukraine and placed historic sanctions on Russia, 1,000 Americans have been permanently banned, to include President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. But guess who has not been banned? Trump. The ban is a largely symbolic move that includes a wide range of people from the Biden administration, lawmakers, tech executives, journalists, Republicans and even Morgan Freeman. Also included on the list are Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden.

Trump missed a great opportunity to prove his critics wrong. Instead, his redirection and ensuing rant about NATO leads us to believe that he sees nothing wrong with what Putin’s done.