Donald Trump Jr. appeared on Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Saturday and contended that the United States’ foreign policy under the Biden administration likely opened the door for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Trump Jr.’s argument came near the close of a nearly 30-minute conversation with guest host and Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow. He argued that American foreign policy under the Biden administration provided Russian President Vladimir Putin with “every excuse” to launch an invasion of Ukraine in February 2021, and there is “a reason” such an invasion never occurred under former President Donald Trump.
VELIKY NOVGOROD, RUSSIA – SEPTEMBER 21: (RUSSIA OUT) Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) gestures as Governor of Veliky Novgorod Andrei Nikitin (L) and Presidential Envoy for Northwestern Federal District Alexander Gutsan (R) look on while visiting the Sberbank’s school prior to the State Councils’ Presidium on September 21, 2023, in Veliky Novgorod, Russia. President Putin is having a one-day trip to northwestern region of Veliky Novgord oblast. (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)
“We took a 500 mile long, maybe a little bit more, 500-mile long no man’s land, and we said, ‘You know what, we’re gonna move NATO’s border right up – we’re gonna welcome Ukraine.’ It was always a red line for Putin,” said Trump Jr.. the host of the Triggered Podcast. “Hey, maybe he was gonna do it one way or the other; maybe he wasn’t. Again, he saw weakness… There’s a reason he didn’t do it under Trump, but we then say, ‘We’re moving it closer. We’re gonna bring [Ukraine] in,’ and then he invades.
“We started all of this,” he continued. “I imagine it would not have happened had we not been having these talks about expanding NATO and getting rid of that buffer zone and all of this. I mean, we gave him every, literally, every excuse he needed to do what he did. I’m not defending him or saying he’s a nice guy, but we made that happen, and no one even talks about it.”
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Notably, Trump Jr.’s perspective mirrors that of Marlow’s, who took a deep dive into the leadup to the Ukraine-Russia war in the sixth chapter of his New York Times best-selling book Breaking Biden: Exposing the Hidden Forces and Secret Money Machine Behind Joe Biden, His Family, and His Administration.
In the chapter “Joe Biden’s Undeniable Role in Ukraine’s Invasion of Russia,” Marlow makes the point that the Biden administration “missed opportunities to avoid” the war “completely” and that Biden’s own “decisions played an undeniable role in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.”
One key moment Marlow points to is a September 2021 visit Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made to the Biden White House, where the president stated the U.S. backed Ukraine’s “aspirations” to become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). However, the U.S. and Ukraine also announced that day a “$60 million security assistance package, including additional Javelin anti-armor systems and other defensive lethal and non-lethal capabilities, to enable Ukraine to more effectively defend itself against Russian aggression.”
WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 21: U.S. President Joe Biden (R) welcomes President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House on December 21, 2022 in Washington, DC. Zelensky is meeting with President Biden on his first known trip outside of Ukraine since the Russian invasion began, and the two leaders are expected to discuss continuing military aid. Zelensky will reportedly address a joint meeting of Congress in the evening. (Drew Angerer/Getty)
This was not the “diplomatic finesse” Biden needed to thread the sensitive Ukraine-NATO needle, as Marlow emphasized.
“This was a lot closer to a diplomatic ‘fuck you’ to Russia, and at a time of relative peace,” he added.
During Saturday’s conversation, Trump Jr. also hammered Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin over comments he reportedly made to Congress.
Tucker Carlson wrote on Thursday in a post on X that during a classified briefing at the House of Representatives on Wednesday, “Austin informed members that if they don’t appropriate more money for Zelensky, ’We’ll send your uncles, cousins and sons to fight Russia.’”
A community note for “context” tied to Carlson’s tweet cites a Messenger report noting Austin said in the meeting that failure to secure aid for Ukraine would “very likely” result in the U.S. having to deploy troops to Europe.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, testifies during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to examine the President’s proposed budget request for fiscal year 2024 for the Department of Defense and the Future Years Defense Program, Tuesday, March 28, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Mariam Zuhaib/AP)
“Why? For what? ” Trump Jr. wondered of Austin’s reported closed-door comment. “You haven’t even articulated what your goals are in the existing war for $130 billion. What’s an extra $60 [billion] gonna get us that $130 [billion] didn’t, other than enriching your buddies and getting yourselves future board seats at Raytheon and Boeing and Lockheed Martin?”
“It’s the number one issue for big war and the swamp because their buddies are getting paid,” he went on to add. “You know, they’re gonna make an extra $30,000 next year because we sold 50 billion in missiles, mortgaging our children’s future to the hilt, and possibly escalating to where we actually are sending our children – not their children – our children to go die in Eastern Europe for something that… we can’t even articulate what our end goals are.”
Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.