Trump, Putin, Carlson and the quicksand of contemporary American politics

The idea was to isolate him, to make him a pariah, to put him in a box as punishment for blatant violations of international law. They kicked him out of their world leaders' clubhouse, shut down his country's economy and even issued an arrest warrant for him for war crimes.

But Vladimir V. Putin doesn't look so isolated these days. Mr. Putin, the czar-envious Russian president who invaded neighboring Ukraine without provocation and killed or injured hundreds of thousands, is having a moment in the United States.

With the help of a populist former Fox News star and America's richest man, Putin is given a platform to justify his actions, even as Russian and American journalists languish in his prisons. His favorite candidate is about to win the Republican presidential nomination, while Congress considers leaving Ukraine to the tender mercies of Russian invaders.

Putin's interview with Tucker Carlson on Elon Musk's social media platform, amid the debate over security assistance on Capitol Hill, driven by Donald J. Trump, offers a moment to reflect on the staggering transformation of American politics in the In recent years. A Republican Party that once defined itself through staunch opposition to Russia has increasingly turned to a form of neo-isolationism with, in some quarters, sympathy for Moscow.

Instead of a ruthless autocrat seeking to seize territory through the most violent war in Europe since the fall of the Nazis, Mr. Putin has turned himself into a kind of like-minded ally of certain right-wing forces in the United States, not in the last place Mr. Trump, who praised his aggression as “genius” just before Russian troops crossed the border with Ukraine in 2022. And Mr Putin appears to have the upper hand in the US capital in a way that would once have been unthinkable, with the help of a party that still pays tribute to Ronald Reagan.

“For Putin, it is an expression of American weakness,” said Yevgenia Albats, an independent Russian journalist who moved to the United States last year after threats of prosecution. For Putin, she said, the Carlson interview proves that “Americans realized they were losing the war with him” and “sent him an envoy close to the next president to confirm his success.” It also serves a domestic purpose for Putin, she added. “It's a message to the elites who advocate the ceasefire: you see, the Americans blinked.”

American politics did not need Mr. Putin to stir things up. The rise of nativism, populism and polarization are homegrown phenomena with historical roots. After decades of rough bipartisan Cold War consensus over America's role in the world, globalization, mass immigration and foreign wars have discredited the old thinking for many and opened the door to figures like Mr. Trump , whose promise to “put America first” resonated. in large parts of the country.

Nevertheless, the change has hardly been more startling than when it comes to Mr Putin, whose government has pumped disinformation into US social media for years. By casting himself as the defender of traditional civilization against moral decay in the West, a place of “outright Satanism” with “several assumed genders,” Mr. Putin has built something of a following in the United States.

More than one in four Americans, or 26 percent, has a positive image of the Russian leader, according to him a study by YouGov, up from just 15 percent in early 2021 before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine a year later. Even if that number is an outlier compared to other surveys, it suggests there is a certain audience for the Kremlin master.

Mr. Carlson is among those more willing to listen and deliver Russia's message to Americans. As others have notedMr. Carlson used to call Mr. Putin the “Russian dictator” who is “in league with our enemies,” but now he claims that Moscow has been misunderstood, or at least not heard. His comments on the attack on Ukraine have been cheerfully repeated in Russian state media.

In a video Explaining his decision to interview Mr. Putin, Mr. Carlson claimed that Americans and other English-speaking people were unaware of what was really happening regarding the war in Ukraine. “Nobody told them the truth,” he said. “Their media outlets are corrupt. They lie to their readers and viewers.”

Never mind that even the Kremlin said Mr. Carlson was not telling the truth when he said he was giving Mr. Putin a platform because “no Western journalist bothered to interview him.” Numerous Western news organizations have requested interviews since the 2022 invasion, as confirmed by Dmitry S. Peskov, Putin's spokesman, but the Kremlin chose Carlson because it viewed him as more open than “the traditional Anglo-Saxon media.”

A predictable wave of outrage followed Mr. Carlson's video announcement, which made no mention of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter arrested in Russia a year ago on espionage charges that he and his employer have vehemently denied, or Russian journalists or dissenters jailed by Putin's government. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Mr. Carlson a “useful idiot,” borrowing Lenin's phrase for Western stooges, and former Representative Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois, called him “a traitor.”

Mrs. Clinton further suggested that the interview underscored a broader and disturbing phenomenon in the United States. “It is a sign that there are people in this country right now who are acting as a fifth column for Vladimir Putin.” Mrs. Clinton said on MSNBC this week.

Among those most frustrated by this are traditional Republicans like Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the party's leader in the Senate, who is facing growing skepticism at his own conference over aid to Ukraine.

While 11 Republicans in the Senate voted against aid to Ukraine in May 2022, shortly after the invasion, 31 voted not to advance the aid on Thursday and it remains unclear whether Republicans in the House of Representatives will hold a vote on the package allow.

Mr. Kinzinger, who broke with Mr. Trump and became one of his most outspoken critics, recalled that Republicans attacked President Barack Obama for not doing more to help Ukraine when Russia first seized Crimea in 2014. Mr Kinzinger wrote on social media on Thursday: “The current Republican Party reportedly attacked Obama in 2014 for doing too much for Ukraine.”

Waiting in the wings is Mr. Trump, determined to regain his old office. Although Robert S. Mueller's investigators in 2019 found no criminal conspiracy between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin's Russia during the 2016 campaign, the former president's enigmatic affinity for the Russian ruler remains pronounced and still baffling to many .

Even in a recent campaign speech, Mr. Trump approvingly cited Mr. Putin's views to argue that the Justice Department was unfairly prosecuting him, citing Russia's statement that the former president's trial “demonstrates the depravity of the American political system .”

At other times, Mr. Trump has declined to say whether he hopes Russia or Ukraine will win the war and has indicated he would like to trade Ukrainian territory to push Russia to end the conflict.

Mr Putin has taken note. As he spreads his message on social media, watches US lawmakers hesitate to arm the victims of his aggression and awaits the outcome of the presidential race, the Russian leader sees a way out of the box.