I. Two days before the war in Ukraine officially began, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the “independence” of Luhansk and Donetsk—parts of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine that Russia had already carved off and occupied. Donald Trump described the seizure and recognition of these regions as “genius”: “So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’” Trump also described the invading Russian army as the “strongest peace force,” and at a fundraiser the next day, he said, “I mean, he’s taking over a country for two dollars worth of sanctions. I’d say that’s pretty smart.”

One of Trump’s favorite rhetorical tactics is the insistence that the United States’ authoritarian adversaries are run by brilliant strategic thinkers like Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong Un, while its own leaders are buffoons who are constantly being manipulated and outmaneuvered. But Trump goes beyond claims about competence and incompetence. “The greatest threat to Western civilization today is not Russia,” he declared last year. “It’s probably, more than anything else, ourselves.”

This sort of observation has become commonplace on the Trumpist Right. On the same day that Trump lauded Putin’s “savvy” decision to recognize the Ukrainian territories he had stolen, Candace Owens said: “NATO (under direction from the United States) is violating previous agreements and expanding eastward. WE are at fault.” A month later, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed that “NATO has been supplying the neo-Nazis in Ukraine with powerful weapons and extensive training on how to use them.” Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar declared: “Ukraine is not our ally. Russia is not our enemy. We need to address our crippling debt, inflation and immigration problems. None of this is Putin’s fault.”
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