Republicans’ shocking about-face on Russia

Like a gang of political “Mean Girls,” the Republican Party is totally committed to making Russia happen.

The last two weeks leave no question about President Trump’s feelings toward Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. The speed and totality of Trump’s policy shift shocked our foreign allies and divided congressional Republicans, culminating in his surprise decision to pause all military aid to Ukraine even as the country faced a heavy new round of Russian air raids.

America’s pivot to a pro-Russian foreign policy isn’t Trump’s doing alone, though/ Across the federal government, we are witnessing a coordinated Republican effort to realign American foreign policy away from the world’s liberal democracies and toward gangster regimes like Putin’s.

But for this to succeed, Trump must change Americans’ overwhelmingly negative opinion of Russia.

Sadly, plenty of Republican leaders are willing to whitewash Putin’s brutality for political gain. Trump’s frontal assault began in earnest this week when he joined Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to demand Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s resignation. Calling for regime change against an American ally is a hugely destabilizing move, made even worse by a Republican media blitz intended to portray Zelensky not as the victim of unprovoked Russian aggression but as a dictator and aggressor.

That was too much for Rep. John James (R-Mich.), who joined “Face the Nation” to flatly reject Johnson's and Trump’s warped view of history. “Russia is the aggressor,” James told Margaret Brennan, adding that Putin is a “war criminal” hardly deserving of American sympathy. In response, Trump supporters flooded James’s social media accounts with the bitter recriminations and threats that have become the MAGA movement’s bleak trademark.

The effort to portray Zelensky as the villain in the Russo-Ukrainian War goes beyond just revisionist history amplified by partisan media outlets. Last month, the U.S. opposed a G-7 statement labeling Russia as the war’s aggressor, just days after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth slammed the door on Ukraine’s entry into NATO — an announcement celebrated by Russian state media outlets as a victory nearly as valuable as winning the ground war itself.

Before Trump can have his own Nixon-in-China moment in Red Square, he’ll need to unwind decades of economic sanctions Russia earned through financial crimes, human rights violations and state sponsorship of terrorism. The White House took its first steps toward removing those sanctions on Monday, when Trump requested the State and Treasury departments draft plans for normalizing economic relations with Putin.

Removing those sanctions would put the U.S. in the bizarre position of stage-managing Russia’s return from economic and political exile — not as a reformed liberal democracy but as an anti-democratic alternative to Europe and the West. This would shred nearly a century of post-World War II collective security and torch the trust of America’s most essential allies. This is a path to ruin.

Unfortunately, there is growing evidence that Trump’s pro-Russia psy-op is beginning to turn public opinion against Ukraine and Zelensky. A CBS News-YouGov poll found that Trump enjoyed a 2-point net approval on his handling of Russia and Ukraine, compared to Biden’s 22-point net disapproval rating at the end of 2024. Even so, a majority of Americans still support Ukraine’s side of the conflict — though those numbers are fading fast, as more voters open up to the idea of a compromise.

Voters are also acutely aware that their president has a soft spot for Russia. Forty-six percent of respondents said Trump’s actions clearly favored Russia, compared to just 11 percent who said his actions favored Ukraine. The Republican Party's newfound fondness for Putin has led many Americans to question their own opinions about Russia, with the country now evenly split between viewing Russia as an enemy and an ally.

By eliminating sanctions against Putin’s corrupt oligarchs and erasing the horrific history of war crimes that earned Russia its economic isolation, Trump hopes to cleanse America’s cultural memory of the atrocities we’ve witnessed over the course of decades. His new diplomacy aligns the U.S. with the struggling illiberal regimes of the world and endorses their criminal practices. It’s a nightmarish future both for America and for the world.

It is pointless to guess at Trump’s motivations in linking arms with Putin and the other wretched autocrats with whom he finds common cause. What’s easier to understand is the immense cost of the foreign policy shift Trump and his cronies are trying to inflict on our country. If Republicans have any serious foreign policy voices left, they’re running out of time to speak up.

Max Burns is a veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies.

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