In an op-ed published by Newsweek, former President Donald Trump said the Russiagate conspiracy was a coup attempt that led to the war in Ukraine. Trump warned the Russiaphopia hysteria created by the conspiracy theory could start World War Three.
“An unelected cabal in the senior ranks of our government, in concert with their chosen candidate, Hillary Clinton, and their allies in the media, launched the de-facto coup attempt known as the Russia Hoax,” he wrote in the article published on Monday. “Their goal was to prevent my election, and failing that, to throw me out of office or sabotage my presidency, undercut my agenda in Congress, block my domestic reforms, and interfere with my foreign policy.”
Trump references the report compiled by John Durham that vindicates his claim that Russiagate was a conspiracy invented by his political opposition. Another Trump claim bolstered by the Durham report is that the American intelligence community wrongfully pursued the investigation into ties between his campaign and the Kremlin.
Trump identified that the conspiracy theory impacted his Russia policy. “At a critical moment when we should have been reducing tensions with Russia, the Russia Hoax stoked mass hysteria that helped drive Russia straight into the arms of China.” He continued, “Instead of having a better relationship with Russia as I worked to build, we now have a proxy war with Russia, fueled in part by the lingering fumes of Russiagate delirium.”
Trump seeks solely to blame those who pushed the Russiagate hoax for the destruction of US-Russian relations. However, as President, Trump took a more aggressive stance against Moscow than his predecessor.
The Trump administration issued sanctions against Russia, expelled dozens of Moscow’s diplomats and destroyed two major arms control treaties with the Kremlin. Additionally, Trump provided lethal arms to Ukraine, a step even Barack Obama refused to take.
Trump claims in the op-ed that he wanted to improve relations with Moscow and “break the neocon addiction to endless foreign wars.” However, during his term, he failed to end a single war, and US-Russian relations were at a post-Cold War low as he left office.
If reelected in 2020, the Trump White House signaled it was unwilling to continue the New Start treaty with the Kremlin. President Joe Biden inked a five-year renewal of the agreement during his first days in office.
As Trump has returned to the campaign trail in hopes of retaking the Oval Office in 2024, he has promoted a message of diplomacy with Russia to end the war in Ukraine and highlighted the dangers of Biden’s proxy war. “Ukraine has been utterly devastated. Untold numbers of people have been killed. And we could very well end up in World War III,” the former president wrote in Newsweek.
