A charismatic entertainment personality wins the US Presidency for the Republicans. Behind him stand a cohort of activists determined to gut the leadership of the intelligence community and replace it with like-minded ideologues.Not Donald Trump in 2024, but Ronald Reagan in 1980.
There's something universally appealing about classic British understatement:
"Vladimir Putin’s past as a KGB officer leads many of his critics to read current Russian policy in terms of the Soviet past. Yet other interpretations are possible."
Trump's "affinity for Russia" is, likewise, subject to interpretation. While initially alarming, looking back to the 2016 campaign, it appears at least half business-driven, with the Trump Organization gunning to take advantage of perceived untapped opportunities across Russia's vast expanse (including big swathes of ex-Soviet republics such as Kazakhstan).
Ideological affinity may stem mostly from reaction to the growing cultural and political influence in America of unambiguously non-Western forces, namely, Islam and Communist China. Trump may perceive Russia, as a civilization of enduring internal tension between Western and anti-Western forces, as a natural ally in a global struggle. If so, he is perhaps oversimplifying, maybe influenced by longtime conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan, who has long seen Russia as part of the West, ignoring the "two-headed eagle."
Brilliant stuff. Thanks.
There's something universally appealing about classic British understatement:
"Vladimir Putin’s past as a KGB officer leads many of his critics to read current Russian policy in terms of the Soviet past. Yet other interpretations are possible."
Trump's "affinity for Russia" is, likewise, subject to interpretation. While initially alarming, looking back to the 2016 campaign, it appears at least half business-driven, with the Trump Organization gunning to take advantage of perceived untapped opportunities across Russia's vast expanse (including big swathes of ex-Soviet republics such as Kazakhstan).
Ideological affinity may stem mostly from reaction to the growing cultural and political influence in America of unambiguously non-Western forces, namely, Islam and Communist China. Trump may perceive Russia, as a civilization of enduring internal tension between Western and anti-Western forces, as a natural ally in a global struggle. If so, he is perhaps oversimplifying, maybe influenced by longtime conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan, who has long seen Russia as part of the West, ignoring the "two-headed eagle."