Seth Wenig/AP Photo
Pro-Ukraine demonstrators carry signs and flags near Russia’s U.N. mission in New York earlier today, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Historically, American isolationism has periodically been one of the banners under which our white Christian supremacist bigots have marched. That certainly was the case with the America First movement that opposed Franklin Roosevelt’s pre–Pearl Harbor aid to Britain and the Soviet Union as they fought for their lives against Hitler’s armed forces. Charles Lindbergh, America First’s leader, made no serious efforts to conceal his pro-German sentiments in that conflict.
Today’s America Firsters bring an even more twisted set of beliefs to their current bromance with Vladimir Putin. Donald Trump’s comments as Russia has invaded Ukraine are particularly revealing. They reveal both his infatuation with leadership based on force, his sense that Putin came through for him and Ukraine’s Zelensky did not, and his complete incomprehension of any of the ideological and legal norms that are at stake.
Saying that it was “a smart move” for Putin to send “the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen” to Ukraine’s frontiers, here’s how Trump then reacted in a radio broadcast to the Russian president’s de facto declaration of war:
Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine—of Ukraine—as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. He used the word “independent,” and “we’re going to go out and we’re going to go in and we’re going to help keep peace.” You’ve got to say that’s pretty savvy.
What Trump took away from Putin’s action was that it was an impressive display of force and cunning—though it’s not clear that Putin’s branding the Russian army’s mission as peacekeeping struck anyone other than Trump as cunning. But Trump has always been partial to the Big Lie, particularly when employed by nationalist leaders.
Moreover, let’s remember that Ukrainian President Zelensky failed to respond to Trump’s request for evidence that Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine were criminal and therefore something that Trump could have used to defeat Hunter’s father in the 2020 election. Indeed, let’s remember that Trump told Zelensky that U.S. aid to Ukraine depended on his producing that evidence. Let’s also remember that Putin’s agents worked to undermine Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016.
In other words, Trump has it in for Zelensky and Ukraine, and views Putin as a stand-up guy who helped in 2016. That—compounded by his glee in Putin’s display of sheer autocratic clout—has made clear which side Trump is on. The notion of assessing Putin’s actions by other criteria—say, defending international law and small-d democratic rule, not to mention the survival of Ukrainian civil society and Ukrainians’ lives and limbs—simply didn’t occur to him. Trump, after all, is neither a small-d democrat nor a defender of the public good as such. His one and only “ism” is narcissism, and by that criterion, for all he cares, Ukraine can get fucked.
The amazing thing is that Trump’s base has taken his narcissistic personality disorder and transformed it into their defining worldview. Trump is psychologically unable to believe he could lose anything, and that if he did, it had to be because his opponent somehow cheated—it’s axiomatic; no proof required. This has become the animating sentiment of the Republican base.
But there’s more to the right’s pro-Putin tilt than just Trump-über-alles. As I’ve noted, ever since Pat Buchanan dubbed Putin his blood brother in the culture wars—a dedicated foe of liberalism, feminism, gay rights, minority rights, secularism, tolerance, pluralism, undue democracy, and all that stuff—the culture-war right has been swooning over Putin and such Putinettes as Hungary’s Viktor Orban, on whom Tucker Carlson has a major crush.
Which is why the Putinphilia of the Trumpian right—Fox News, Josh Hawley, J.D. Vance, and their ilk—is, as the shrinks say, overdetermined.
