Who Was Tougher on Russia, Obama or Pres. Trump?

The narrative pushed by the DC Democrats and the Media is that Trump was colluding with Russia to the detriment of America and that he is now soft on Russia. As a matter of policy, however, Trump has been significantly harder on Russia than Obama.

Poland

1. One of the first things Obama did was to renege on a U.S./Poland deal to sell Poland missiles to be pointed at Russia. That angered the Poles and pleased the Russians.
2. Trump reversed that policy and the U.S. is selling missiles to Poland.

Energy

1. Recall that Reagan broke the Soviet Union economically according to Soviet hierarchy and dissidents as well as U.S. observers. The strong US growth rate under Reagan (that allowed us to rebuild our military) versus the weak Soviet rate allowed the U.S. to win the Cold War and break the Soviet’s spirit.
2. During the Obama Presidency, Russia blackmailed countries economically be becoming ascendant with respect to energy deliveries. Obama did not challenge that and made it easier for Putin to do so because Obama limited U.S. energy production.
3. Trump has aggressively challenged the Russian energy position and is pursuing energy sales to U.S. allies and to vulnerable Soviet allies.

Syria

1. Syrian represents a most difficult hornets’ nest for U.S. policymakers. Syria is a Russia client state.
2. Obama did not challenge Russia in Syria – indeed, Obama/Kerry accepted Syria’s claim that it got rid of all its chemical weapons. That was obviously a totally false claim.
3. The Trump administration bombed Syrian positions over the use of chemical weapons.

Iran

1. Obama made a bad deal with Iran – another client state of Russia.
2. The Trump admin has not ripped up the deal as Trump said would be done. However, Trump has taken on Iranian backed rebels in Syria and Sunni Arab states over Iran.

Ukraine

1. The Obama administration refused to sell lethal weaponry to Ukraine.
2. The Trump admin has continued that policy to date – even while the Left claims that he is soft on Russia for not selling Ukraine lethal weaponry. Trump is, however, open to more energy sales.

Nato

1. Obama did pursue policies of increasing the size of NATO – a policy opposed by Russia.
2. Trump has gone one step further by pushing NATO to increase defense spending.

Overall

1. Obama with Hillary pursued a Russian Reset – which is widely acknowledged to have failed. Obama went so far as to sell U.S. Uranium to Russia. Obama, like most Democrats, was perceived to be weak internationally and towards Russia.
2. Trump is seeking his own recalibration as well. So far, however, contrary to claims on the Left, Trump has not accommodated Russia – he has adopted Reagan’s policies of peace through economic and military strength to challenge Russia.

Finally, the Left has now become hawks with respect to Russia after 70 years of weakness and having gone so far to apologize for Russian actions by stating they undertook those acts because of American actions. Their conversion represents an effort to undermine Trump – unless you believe the Left has become sincere NEO CONS.