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What a Weekend for Putin!
It’s been a long time since the Russian dictator had it this good.
https://substack.com/@williamkristolhttps://substack.com/@asteinindc
William Kristol
,
Andrew Egger
, and
Sam Stein
Mar 03, 2025
It was a hell of a weekend for bad men getting what they paid for out of Donald Trump. And while we’ll focus on Vladimir Putin here, we don’t want to fully ignore venture capitalist David Sacks, Donald Trump’s “crypto czar,” who seemingly stands to make bank following Trump’s weekend announcement of a “strategic cryptocurrency reserve.”
The Oval Fiasco
by William KristolFriday’s disgraceful spectacle in the Oval Office was shocking.
It was shocking because we can still remember when U.S. presidents didn’t routinely disgrace their trust. It was shocking because we are not yet used to seeing the Oval Office as a setting in which an American president bullies a democratic leader on behalf of a brutal dictator.
But the sickening spectacle shouldn’t have been surprising. In the last few weeks, with the phone call with Vladimir Putin, the Pete Hegseth and JD Vance speeches in Europe, and the Marco Rubio meeting in Riyadh, it had become altogether clear that in his second term, Trump’s pro-Putin stance would be unencumbered and unapologetic.
And so the Financial Times warned back on February 21 that “those who thought America was a friend or ally” would have to instead deal with a world in which “America is an unabashed predator.”
The FT asked what the events of the preceding week told us about the future:
That was ten days ago.
Friday’s Oval Office mugging of Volodymyr Zelensky was simply the next step in the turn. Trump wanted to undercut Zelensky’s support here at home, at least with Republicans who’d heretofore been pro-Ukraine. And so he and Vance set out to create a mini-drama that would allow Trump to say afterwards that Zelensky wasn’t a “partner for peace.” Previously pro-Ukraine Republicans like Lindsey Graham dutifully joined the pile-on.
In Europe, they understood what was happening. The German press on Saturday morning declared: “It is now the law of the jungle.” “The former leading power of the West can no longer be relied upon.”
And the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said later that day, “We can never accept a reversal of perpetrator and victim. Such a reversal would mean the end of . . . the security of most states. And in the long run, it would also be fatal for the future of the United States.”
So our allies are properly alarmed and outraged. The Putin regime, on the other hand, is gleeful and triumphant. They understand how important it is that the Trump administration has joined them in pursuing a world in which perpetrators are rewarded and victims abandoned.
As the Washington Post reports this morning, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov proclaimed that “The new [U.S.] administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely aligns with our vision.” Peskov continued: “If the political will of the two leaders, President Putin and President Trump, is maintained, this path can be quite quick and successful.”
What can be done by those who believe this path to be both dishonorable and disastrous; by those who believe that the world Putin is trying to create and that Trump welcomes is not a world the United States should want?
Unlike Russia, this is still a representative democracy. There’s another elective branch of the government, Congress. It has 535 elected representatives. They are independent of the executive. They debate. They vote.
It’s true that in foreign policy, presidents have a lot of leeway. But Congress has fought presidents on foreign policy matters in the past, as Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, and others can attest. Congress has the power of the purse. It can appropriate and withhold funds. More broadly, Congress can, on behalf of the American people, remind friends and enemies alike that here the president is not all-powerful, and that his policies can be modified while in office and reversed afterwards.
But Republicans control Congress, you say. It’s hopeless.
Maybe. But there are Republicans who understand what’s at stake. A few spoke out this weekend, such as Don Bacon in the House and Lisa Murkowski in the Senate. The fact is that going forward a small group of Republicans in the Senate and the House, acting in concert among themselves and in cooperation with the Democrats, could make a fundamental difference. With their support, Congress could pass resolutions supporting Ukraine and NATO and condemning Putin. They could insist that aid for Ukraine be added to continuing resolutions and appropriations bills.
They could do this if they remembered Edmund Burke’s admonition that a representative owes his constituents “his unbiased opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience.” These are “a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable.”
Honoring their trust from Providence or behaving as a rubber stamp for Donald Trump—which legacy is it to be?
What a Weekend for Putin!
It’s been a long time since the Russian dictator had it this good.
www.thebulwark.com
