Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has baselessly suggested that President Joe Biden may be trying to start a nuclear war in Europe before he leaves office in order to sabotage Donald Trump’s incoming administration.
The Georgia populist, who is never short of a wild conspiracy theory, took to X on Monday to respond to a thinly-sourced post by conservative influencer Mario Nawfal on the Russia-Ukraine war that read: “WTF: U.S WANTS TO ARM UKRAINE WITH NUKES BEFORE BIDEN LEAVES?!
“In a jaw-dropping twist, Biden officials are reportedly seriously considering giving nuclear weapons to Ukraine.”
Nawfal continued by claiming the Biden administration is “floating the idea of returning nuclear arms removed after the Soviet Union’s fall” and posed the question: “Is this about aiding Ukraine – or is something more at play?”
Greene amplified the post to her four million followers by commenting: “This is INSANE and completely unconstitutional, possibly an act of treason.
“This must be stopped immediately!! Is the Biden admin trying to start a nuclear war and use it as the reason to stop the transfer of power to Trump?”
It is true that Biden recently moved to authorize Ukraine to use American-made, long-range ATACMS missiles to strike inside Russia for the first time – as well as to use anti-personnel mines on its own territory – in order to help his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky as much as possible before departing the world stage.
However, there is no evidence at all to suggest he is seeking to escalate the war for domestic political gain or has any intention of returning nuclear weapons to the former Soviet satellite state for the first time in three decades – a move that Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev has warned would invite a direct retaliation from Moscow.
“The world is no nearer to a nuclear war than it was before the latest Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022,” Michael Clarke, a professor in the Department of War Studies and former director general of the Royal United Services Institute, assured Newsweek in response to Greene’s post.
“Mutual deterrence is designed precisely to shield the major powers, and coincidentally the rest of the world, against reckless nuclear threats.”
Russia’s invasion of its western neighbor in February 2022 came a little over a year into Biden’s presidency.
Throughout the ongoing war, the 46th commander-in-chief has proven a staunch ally to Ukraine, donating US arms, funding and humanitarian aid while imposing harsh sanctions on Vladimir Putin’s aggressor nation.
It is by no means certain that Trump will continue to support Kyiv to the same extent when he takes office. He has spoken with Zelensky since his election victory and, throughout the 2024 campaign, repeatedly made clear his priority was to bring the conflict to an end as soon as possible.
When Biden’s policy shift on long-range weapons was first announced, Greene was one of a number of MAGA insiders, along with Donald Trump Jr and Richard Grenell, to accuse the president of setting in motion a Third World War.
“On his way out of office, Joe Biden is dangerously trying to start WWIII by authorizing Ukraine the use of US long range missiles into Russia,” Greene wrote on X, seizing on the opportunity to call for an end to American financial support for Kyiv.
“The American people gave a mandate on Nov 5th against these exact America last decisions and do NOT want to fund or fight foreign wars. We want to fix our own problems. Enough of this, it must stop.”
The same argument was made this week by influential podcaster Joe Rogan, drawing an angry response from Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko, who accused him of parroting Russian propaganda.
Greene, who was recently appointed by Trump to lead a subcommittee supporting Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has in the past been widely associated with a string of unfounded conspiracy theories, from QAnon and “Jewish space lasers” to, more recently, Democrats controlling the weather.
