Whatever you do, don’t ask whether Putin would have invaded Ukraine if Trump was still president

Russia has invaded Ukraine, and now everyone waits to see what the rest of the world, including the United States, does in response.

Naturally, as with most issues these days, the invasion ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin has created yet another opportunity for partisan politics. Much of it centers around a primarily irrelevant question: How would this have played out if Donald Trump were still president?

It’s an odd flex for people to say, “Thank God Biden is in office and not Trump, Putin’s puppet!” especially considering that Putin did invade with Biden in office in 2014. Equally bizarre are those (including Donald Trump Jr., who took advantage of a Kanye meme) who say, “Putin would have never done this if Trump was still president!” No one knows that.

Some explanations offered up are almost comical. Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review, suggested Trump’s unpredictability might have made Putin wary. John Harwood, White House correspondent for CNN, said Putin schemed to get Trump elected as it would make the task of invading Ukraine easier. It’s all conjecture — and it helps nobody.

Trump obviously doesn’t have much of an agenda beyond propping himself up. During an interview with Laura Ingraham, the former president sought to use current events to advance his lies about the 2020 election, saying: ”He [Vladimir Putin] was going to be satisfied with a peace, and now he sees the weakness and the incompetence and the stupidity of this administration, and, as an American, I’m angry about it, and I’m saddened by it. And it all happened because of a rigged election. This would have never happened.”

During that same interview, Ingraham said, “We are just learning that US officials are looking at a potential amphibious landing now in Odessa, Ukraine.” For whatever reason, Trump chided Ingraham, as he appeared to think she meant the United States was conducting an amphibious landing rather than Russia. “They should do that secretly, not being doing that through the great Laura Ingraham,” he said. “They should be doing that secretly. Nobody should know that, Laura.”

Trump is not even aware of what’s happening in Ukraine. He no longer has access to the latest intelligence, is not in contact with military leaders, and doesn’t influence anyone on the world stage.

Putin, however, is counting on the finger-pointing currently going on within our political system. Such divisions, more than words from Donald Trump or actions by President Biden, create a sense of disorder that Russia (and its ally, China) counts on to foment the kind of chaos so many believe was at the heart of his shenanigans in US elections.

Senator Ted Cruz does himself and no one else favors when he tweets, as he did just now: “Why didn’t Putin invade Ukraine during the Trump admin? It was because the US signaled strength & resolve against Russian aggression. Putin stopped building his Nord Stream 2 pipeline minutes before Trump signed my sanctions legislation into law. #Verdict“. Giving credit to the nation’s “strength and resolve” — that he apparently believes no longer exists — is not the service to the American people that he thinks it is.

Meanwhile, Democrat Tulsi Gabbard thinks the invasion all could have been avoided “if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine’s becoming a member of NATO, which would mean US/NATO forces right on Russia’s border.” Credit goes to Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who corrected her and said that was not Putin’s sole demand: ”As recently as last week, [Putin] once again demanded NATO leave every country that joined after 1997, including Bulgaria, Romania and 12 others.”

No rule says Republicans and Democrats should all line up behind the Biden administration and offer support for whatever steps it wants to take in dealing with what could be the first ground war in Europe in decades. Congress has a role to play, and robust debate between members and the White House is necessary to come to a consensus in the United States and in coordination with allies worldwide.

However, if the people in charge want to spend more time arguing about it on Twitter and pontificating about who would have done what if X was in office instead of Y, the only one who gains is Vladimir Putin.