Paul Roderick Gregory: Trump, deferring to Putin, deleted GOP platform’s call to supply Ukraine with lethal defensive weapons
US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with vice presidential candidate Mike Pence on July 16, 2016, during a press conference in New York.
According to multiple accounts, the Trump campaign has successfully worked behind the scenes to make sure the new Republican platform would not pledge the lethal defensive weapons Ukraine has been pleading for from the United States. Trump's forces have tabled a platform amendment that would call for maintaining or increasing sanctions against Russia, and have substituted "appropriate assistance" for "providing lethal defensive weapons" to Ukraine's military. Removing sanctions and blocking lethal military assistance to Ukraine are the two primary goals of Putin's foreign policy. The Republican platform is handing those goals to Putin on a golden platter.
