Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appeared on ABC's This Week yesterday morning where he faced questions about his status as a bona fide Russian fanboy.
In a moment that was reminiscent of Charlie Gibson asking Sarah Palin if she believes in the Bush Doctrine, Trump asserted that Russia would not invade Ukraine if he becomes president.
"He's not going into Ukraine, OK, just so you understand. He's not gonna go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down. You can put it down," Trump said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
Host George Stephanopoulos pushed back, saying, "Well, he's already there, isn't he?""OK, well, he's there in a certain way," Trump responded.
As you know, Russia has already been in Ukraine for years. Russia actually annexed Crimea in a hostile takeover that is not recognized by the overwhelming majority of the world. Only a handful of countries such as Syria and North Korea recognize Crimea as a part of Russia.
The United States may join that list if Trump becomes president. Trump was asked last week if he would recognize Crimea as Russian territory and he did not rule it out.
We can't necessarily say for certain that Trump is merely an idiot. There's no doubt that Donald Trump is an idiot, but we have to leave open the possibility that Trump is aware that Russia invaded Ukraine and is simply running a misinformation and PR campaign for Putin. We're only a week removed from Trump openly asking Russian hackers to spy on his political opponents.