2.26.22
Why is a former president of the United States rooting for Russia to be uncontained? Yes, as Russian forces surrounded Ukraine on Wednesday, preparing to invade on Thursday, Donald Trump praised the Russian president as being “pretty smart” for “taking over a country — really a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people.” And why are Republican leaders — the same folks who like to throw the word “communist” around like a poisoned dart — remaining silent about this bizarre and stunning endorsement of the Kremlin? Sure, I get it, they hate President Biden, they want to own the libs, all of that. But what exactly is the endgame here? Which aspect of the American dream does Trump represent when he responds to Russian forces encircling Ukraine with “this is genius”? On Friday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced the deployment of parts of the organization’s response force, saying: “This goes far beyond Ukraine. This is about how Russia is actually contesting core values for our security.” This month, 12,000 U.S. troops have been sent to Europe. So I repeat: Why is Trump gushing over Putin?
But sure, let’s reconsider our distrust of Putin because the former president who looked directly into the sun during a solar eclipse said so. On Thursday, I checked on a friend who is originally from Ukraine to see how he was holding up and whether he had heard from his family. “Yes. They are all getting weapons,” he replied. “There’s no other way. We must end this tyranny.” On Friday when I checked in, all he wrote back was “bad.” In praising the “savvy” of Putin’s military forces circling Ukraine, Trump even said “we could use that on our southern border,” casually floating the idea of threatening war with Mexico. Each time he disregards decorum and decency, Trump draws us closer to the cliff’s edge. But no matter what happens between Ukraine and Russia, Putin will still be Putin and Trump will be Trump. They aren’t hiding who they are. The most pressing question of the moment is: Who do we want to be?