Long holding the hard line in foreign policy, the Republican Party is torn against Russia. Donald Trump and other leading figures have expressed sympathy for Vladimir Putin, seen as the epitome of strength and the defender of traditional values.
In February, before Russian threats to Ukraine’s borders turned into a real invasion, part of the American media landscape wondered why the United States was not supporting the invaders.
“Hate against Putin has become the mainstay of American foreign policy. This is the main subject”, slammed presenter Tucker Carlson on Fox News on February 22.
We are entitled to ask ourselves, since the situation is tense day by day: what is it really about? Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever accused me of being racist? Did he threaten me with dismissal because I disagreed with him?”
Interviewed the same day on the radio show The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show, former President Donald Trump said the Russian President was “smart” and “clever”. Then, on the night of February 23, when it became known that a Russian offensive had begun across Ukraine, Trump reiterated his admiration for Putin. [le 26 février, il a qualifié l’invasion d’“atrocité”, mais a répété que Poutine s’était joué de Joe Biden].
“We didn’t join the marines to go fight Putin because he doesn’t believe in transgender rights, which the US State Department says is a major problem in Russia.” said JD Vance, who is running for Senators from Ohio, in a podcast with former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on Feb. 19. As for Bannon, he praised “antiwokism” of Putin a few hours before the aggression against Ukraine.
Praise of autocrats
The American right has long been associated with Cold War intransigence. In recent years, however, the trend has shifted towards praising autocrats, including those in countries that have traditionally been adversaries of the United States. The right also likes to project its conflicting values abroad. If Russia and other autocracies were once seen as undemocratic, today they are erected as a symbol of American conservatism and a mirror of its vision of the world.
By backing Putin and other dictators, the right has found a new way to wield ideological disputes to further divide Americans.
This turning point comes in particular from
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Emily Tamkin
The author
Emily Tamkin is the editor of The New Statesman and author of the essays The Influence of Soros (2020) and Bad Jews (forthcoming).
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With 1,700 journalists, around 30 offices abroad, more than 130 Pulitzer Prize winners and more than 8 million subscribers in total, The New York Times is the reference daily of the United States, the one in which one can read “all the
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United States. How America’s nationalist right learned to love Russia