Reminder to GOP voters regarding the party’s frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination for next year’s election: Donald J. Trump refused to take sides in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in his CNN Town Hall last May.

“I want everyone to stop dying. They’re dying. Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done in 24 hours.”

After Russia’s invasion in February 2022, the former president said the following on The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show on radio:

“I think nobody probably knows him better in terms of the discussions that we have or that we’re having this morning. I knew that he always wanted Ukraine. I used to talk to him about it. I said, ‘You can’t do it. You’re not gonna do it. But I could see he wanted it. …

“I knew Putin very well. I got along with him great. He liked me. I liked him. I mean, you know, he’s a tough cookie, got a lot of great charm and a lot of great pride. But the way he – and he knows his country, you know? He loves his country. He’s acting a little differently, I think, now.”

“Traditional” Republicans, particularly in the Senate, are squarely behind Volodymyr Zelinskyy and Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion. But several House Republicans from the MAGA/Freedom Caucus wing who back Trump on every issue want to cut off military aid to Ukraine.

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