Stop Blaming Elbridge Colby

The Policies of Protecting Putin And Harming Ukraine Are Trump's

Hi All,

Of all the deceptive narratives floating around about the Trump Administration’s policies towards Ukraine, maybe the weirdest is the idea that Elbridge Colby, the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, is some evil genius, manipulating US policy and the entire Trump Administration in an effort to implement his own policy agenda.

In the last few months this fantastical vision of US policy making has appeared at least three times. In each example, the US adopts an outrageously anti-Ukraine (even anti-Europe) policy, but instead of Trump receiving blame for the policies, they are ascribed to Colby. The most recent occurred just a few days ago, when it was reported that the US was slashing military support to European states on the border with Russia—materially damaging their ability to prepare for a fight with the Russian military.

Right away the policy was blamed (almost always by pro-Ukraine Republicans who do not want to admit that in supporting Trump they are supporting a friend of Putin and an enemy of Ukraine) to some nefarious doing of Elbridge Colby. The Defense Correspondent of Fox News pushed this idea immediately.

It was identical to the narrative that appeared more than two months earlier when it was reported that the US has unilaterally stopped all weapons shipments to Ukraine. Once again, supposedly pro-Ukraine Republicans stepped in to say that Colby was to blame.