It's all pellucidly clear.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

1. Political pressure forced Trump to maintain sanctions on Russia and give Ukraine aid in its fight against Russian supported/assisted separatists in Eastern Ukraine.

2. Trump resented this, either because:

a. He sympathized with Putin and didn't want to enact these measures;

b. Putin was directly pressuring him to drop these measures; or (most likely)

c. Both.


3. The matter of renewal of military aid towards Ukraine came up and Trump saw what he thought was a win-win opportunity.

4. By conditioning the Ukrainian aid package on Ukrainian authorities delivering him supposed dirt on Joe Biden, either

a. Ukraine refuses to provide dirt on Biden, and it gives Trump an opportunity to go to Master Putin and prove his
worthiness in his eyes; or

b. Ukraine agrees to give him dirt on Biden (true or not) and it at least gives him political ammunition.



This just seems like an Occam's Razor explanation, almost.

[FrankBooth]

1. Bingo

This sounds exactly right to me.

[Dave Starsky]

2. This sounds right to me. n/t

[kentuck]

3. Yep!