Trump says Spain’s far-right Vox party is doing a ‘great job’; blames U.S. for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, interview
Former U.S. President Donald Trump threw his weight behind Spain’s far-right Sunday in a video shown at a rally in Madrid that also featured messages by the leading stars of Europe’s populist right like Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Hungary’s Viktor Orban.
In a recording that lasted under 40 seconds made while Trump was on a plane, Trump thanked Spain’s far-right Vox party and its leader Santiago Abascal for what he called the “great job” they do.
“We have to make sure that we protect our borders and do lots of very good conservative things,” Trump said. “Spain is a great country and we want to keep it a great country. So congratulations to Vox for so many great messages you get out to the people of Spain and the people of the world.”
Vox captured national attention on Spain’s political landscape in 2019 when it became the third-largest force in Spain’s Parliament after an election that led to a national left-wing coalition that still holds power. Vox’s messages include zero tolerance for Catalan separatism, disdain for gender equality, diatribes against unauthorized immigration from Africa and embracing both the “Reconquista” of medieval Spain from Islam as well as the legacy of Gen. Francisco Franco’s 20th-century dictatorship. [Continue reading…]
Former President Donald Trump blamed the United States for “almost forcing” Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine.
Trump’s remarks came as Russia continued to stall in their struggling “special military operation,” ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin more than seven months earlier on February 24, 2022. The ex-president has been critical of how President Joe Biden, who he may run against in the 2024 presidential election, has handled diplomatic relations with Russia. But critics accuse Trump of taking positions seen as favorable to Putin.
During an interview on Real America’s Voice, a right-wing network favorable to Trump, the former president criticized the Biden administration. He argued that their “rhetoric” in the months leading up to the Ukraine invasion contributed to Putin’s decision.
“They actually taunted him, if you really look at it. Our country, and our so-called leadership, taunted Putin. I said, you know, they’re almost forcing him to go in with what they’re saying. The rhetoric was so dumb.” [Continue reading…]
While most national Republicans have been fretting over whether Dr. Mehmet Oz can rebound in Pennsylvania, or whether Herschel Walker will be tripped up by the ghosts of his past, Donald Trump has also been keeping tabs on the political future of Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and watching closely as Kim Jong-Un rattles the west.
The former president remains keenly invested in the midterm election cycle that is cresting back home. But his attention has been occupied by affairs overseas too.
Trump and his circles have worked to propel the “America First” style of right-wing populism abroad by giving a MAGA stamp of approval for far-right candidates and building informal alliances with burgeoning right-wing movements. Most recently, he provided a last-minute boost for Bolsonaro with a video endorsement filmed on his private plane while on the way back from a rally in Michigan — a video that Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo said contributed to his father’s better than expected showing in Sunday’s presidential election. [Continue reading…]