The WeekThe Week
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock

Republicans have had a weakness for tough people. In the early days of the Cold War, it was said that Democrats were ready to sell out the country to its enemies, with the GOP eager to serve proudly and unapologetically as America's lone defenders abroad.

The script has already been updated to account for the recent distressing events on the border between Russia and Ukraine.

Hugh Hewitt, a conservative talk-show host, implied that Putin became a pussycat because he didn't invade Ukraine until 2020.

It wasn't Trump Putin's lapdog for the entirety of his presidency, who refused to say anything critical about him and even sided with Putin's denial of Russian interference in the 2016 election against evidence provided by America.

National Review's Rich Lowry jumped in a few days later to add more context to the claim. The sheer unpredictably of Trump, his anger at being ignored or disrespected, his willingness to take the occasional big risk, all had to be done by Trump.

Some truth may be found in this revision of the thesis. Trump was unpredictable. It is possible that Putin was worried that a big military response from Trump would happen.

It is more likely that he wanted something very different. Jonathan Last pointed out in his newsletter on Tuesday that Trump wanted the United States to withdraw from NATO. He was campaigning for president. He did it as president. After he won re-election in 2020, he made clear to advisers that he wanted to make it a reality.

It makes more sense to suppose that Putin was expecting to get everything he wanted without having to fire a shot during the Trump presidency. With a less unconventional American president in charge, war has become the only way for Putin to advance his goal of preventing NATO from moving closer to Russian territory.

Putin didn't play nice from the year of 2020 because he was afraid of Donald Trump. He knew he had nothing to fear from the person in the Oval Office.

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