How Trump Would Have Stood Up to Putin

Instead of holding back on sanctions and letting Putin call the shots, as President Biden did, Trump would’ve taken action right away.

President Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference February 26, 2022. AP/John Raoux

On a radio talk show today, I was asked if Vladimir Putin would have invaded Ukraine if my former boss, President Trump, were still in office. “Absolutely not” was my immediate response. 

President Putin wouldn’t have done it. Why? Because the minute Mr. Trump saw 150,000 Russian troops massing near Ukraine, he would’ve called Mr. Putin and rattled his cage. That’s right: Rattled his cage. Know what I mean by that? 

I believe the former president would’ve said to Mr. Putin, “You pull a stunt like invading Ukraine, and we will wipe your economy off the map. Immediately. We’re energy independent. We’re a net energy exporter. We don’t need your energy and gas and we’re going to shut you down immediately.” 

Instead of holding back on sanctions and letting Mr. Putin call the shots, as President Biden did, Mr. Trump would’ve taken action right away. If his phone conversation wasn’t satisfactory, boom: Immediate sanctions to the central bank. Immediate sanctions on commercial banks. Immediate sanctions on the Russian oil companies. No carve outs, no waiting time. No nothing. Just action. 

That’s the kind of president Mr. Trump was. He’d say get the Russian on the phone, and then he would read Mr. Putin the riot act. 

Remember, Mr. Trump bombed Syria while he and the Chinese president were having chocolate cake dessert at Mar-a-Lago in late 2017. Remember that? Remember the night Mr. Trump took out the Iranian terrorist, Qasem Soleimani? He was the killer who was financing Hezbollah, Hamas, and al-Qaeda. Mr. Trump just took him out. 

He didn’t ask permission from 15 multilateral global institutions. He just took action. “Better to be feared than loved,” Machiavelli taught us 500 years ago. Mr. Trump was feared. 

Remember Mr. Trump dropped the “mother of all bombs” on ISIS-K in Afghanistan back in 2017?  Remember Mr. Trump just walked across the North Korean DMZ line? Fearlessly.

Remember how many trips Mr. Trump made down to the U.S.-Mexican border. Finally, remember that the U.S. became energy independent during the Trump years. 

If Mr. Trump were still president in 2021 when Mr. Putin started his troop buildup on the Ukraine border, the U.S. would still have been energy independent.

Post-pandemic he would’ve pushed America’s fossil fuel business to get back over 13 million barrels per day on the way to 14 million. That would’ve kept oil prices down around $40-$50 a barrel, and that would’ve prevented all of Mr. Putin’s wartime financing profits from the increase in oil prices nurtured by Mr. Biden’s anti-fossil fuel jihad. Mr. Trump would’ve made good on the keystone pipeline and ANWR. 

Mr. Trump’s FERC would not have frozen energy leases on federal lands. Mr. Trump’s SEC and Federal Reserve would not be harassing fossil fuel companies about red tape and withholding bank credit. There would be no radical-left climate people in a Trump administration. He proposed an all-of-the-above energy policy, which is what Senator Manchin is advocating. Fossil fuels and nuclear energy: That’s a common sense policy.

Mr. Biden’s war against fossil fuels has enabled Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Sky-high prices financed Mr. Putin’s war machine — that and Mr. Biden’s too little, too late leading-from-behind sanctions diplomacy and the fact he’s neither loved at home nor feared abroad.

Here’s one more thing Donald Trump would’ve never tolerated: a new Iranian nuclear deal. In fact, Mr. Trump walked away from the old, ineffective deal. 

This is an astonishing story: In the middle of this Ukrainian crisis, American diplomats are maybe hours away from providing $11 billion in assistance to Iran as part of a new appeasement deal with that terrorist country.

Let’s not forget Iran is aligned with Moscow. Is this what we want?

Iran lies, cheats, and steals. Iran won’t let U.N. inspectors in to inspect. Iran is closing in on a nuclear bomb, and Mr. Biden is about to fork over $11 billion for the release of four American hostages to help provide a nuclear bomb to one of the world’s most evil regimes?

Really? That’s something else Donald Trump would’ve never done.

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business News.


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