Former President Donald Trump says the ongoing Russia–Ukraine conflict was fueled in part by attempts by political opponents to prevent him from taking office.
"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. Ukraine has been utterly devastated. Untold numbers of people have been killed. And we could very well end up in World War III," Mr. Trump wrote in a Newsweek op-ed published this week.
In it, he compares the actions taken to prevent him from taking office seven years ago to what he is facing today. Mr. Trump explained how the false claims that Russian interference won him the 2016 presidential seat have had reverberating effects still felt today.
"As savage and cruel as the Russia Hoax was for me, my family, my staff, and so many innocent bystanders, the real victims were the American People," he wrote.
"The destruction this hoax caused to America is almost incalculable. It subverted our democracy, it threatened our security, and it endangered our freedom.
"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 wrote, adding that the result is the war in Ukraine seen today.
'There Must Be a Reckoning'
In 2016, Mr. Trump ran on a platform that challenged the establishment, and he says the establishment retaliated in full force.
"I vowed to stop mass illegal immigration, terminate globalist trade deals, end the sellout of our country to Communist China, stand up to the permanent bureaucracy and the corporate media, and break the neocon addiction to endless foreign wars," he wrote.
"In response, 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."
Unable to throw him out of office, the result was a three-year "massive disinformation campaign and lawless persecution based on the monstrous lie that I was a traitor to my country," Mr. Trump wrote.
He extensively referenced the Durham report, an investigation by special counsel John Durham on intelligence activities surrounding the 2016 presidential election (pdf).
"The Durham Report proves that the key figures involved knew from the start that the Russia Collusion conspiracy theory was a lie. The FBI launched their witch hunt without a scrap of legitimate evidence—and when they came upon exonerating information time after time, they covered it up and kept the hoax going forward," Mr. Trump continued.
He cites the report's findings that leadership including then-FBI Director James Comey, President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and presidential rival Mrs. Clinton were aware of the abuse of power, and that "perhaps most dangerous of all, the Russia Hoax normalized the weaponization of law enforcement against the Left's political enemies."
Mr. Trump makes no mention of the current troubles he is facing from federal law enforcement, but alludes to the fact, writing "they are interfering in the 2024 election before our very eyes."
Mr. Trump is still facing a barrage of legal action tied to his time in office, include two cases special counsel Jack Smith of the Department of Justice is heading. One case, in which Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty, relates to classified documents stored at his Mar-a-Lago residence, which he maintains he declassified as president. The other case relates to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach.
"There must be a reckoning. Accountability now lies in the hands of the voters," Mr. Trump wrote. "The Durham Report has made the stakes abundantly clear, and now the choice is ours: either the Deep State destroys America, or we destroy the Deep State."
Censorship
The manipulation comes not just from the federal government, but Big Tech as well, he wrote.
"As the Twitter Files have proven, the Radical Left establishment also used the Russia Hoax to attack freedom of speech. They built a sprawling domestic censorship regime under the guise of combatting so-called 'Russian disinformation'—which they quickly defined to include any content they did not like," Mr. Trump wrote.
Notably, Twitter permanently banned Mr. Trump on Jan. 8, 2021, as the events of Jan. 6, 2021, were still coming to light. The president had posted a video urging peace from people gathered at the nation's capitol the day of the breach, asking them to go home, and the video was quickly suppressed while Mr. Trump was temporarily banned on Twitter and Facebook. The next day, Facebook blocked his account through Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, and Twitter followed with a permanent ban the day after.
Recently, a lawsuit brought by the states of Missouri and Louisiana revealed that the federal government under the Biden administration had instructed social media companies on how and who to censor. The case is being appealed by the Biden administration.
