Don’t Let Them Get Away With It: Trump Supporting Putin Isn’t Okay
- john raymond
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
They are already trying to make you forget. They are already testing the waters. “Is it really so bad?” “Didn’t Trump just want peace?” “Maybe Putin is more reasonable than we thought.” The campaign to normalize Donald Trump’s deference to Vladimir Putin has begun in earnest, and it’s coming faster than even seasoned observers expected. We have moved from years of denial—"He’s not really working for Putin"—to the next and more dangerous phase: trivialization. That is the phase where the betrayal is no longer denied, but is treated as inconsequential, even strategic. That is the phase where rot sets in. And it is exactly the moment where our collective spine must stiffen.
Let’s be clear about what just happened. Donald Trump had a two-hour phone call with Vladimir Putin. He came away from it saying the tone was “excellent,” that a ceasefire in Ukraine would be negotiated not with America or its allies involved, but directly between Russia and Ukraine—on terms known only to them. He praised Russia’s potential for “massive wealth creation” through trade with the United States. He blamed the ongoing war not on the invader, but on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling him obstinate and suggesting that he doesn’t have the leverage to make demands. All of this is classic Trump—but worse, it is classic asymmetric manipulation. And MAGA influencers, far-right pundits, and opportunistic conservatives have already started to spin it as normal, or even noble.
Don’t fall for it.
There is nothing okay about the president of the United States, past or present, acting as a megaphone for a foreign autocrat who has engaged in brutal war crimes. There is nothing okay about letting Russia define the terms of “peace” while its bombs continue to fall on hospitals, schools, and civilian homes. There is nothing okay about pretending that Trump’s affinity for Putin is about pragmatism when it has always been about submission.
But the worst part is what comes next. Trump’s supporters, many of whom have already tied themselves into knots defending his most indefensible actions, will now shift their posture from “he didn’t do it” to “so what if he did?” They will suggest that working with Putin is actually savvy. They will say Biden couldn’t get a ceasefire and Trump can. They will push a narrative that standing with Ukraine is some neocon fantasy, that NATO is past its prime, and that the world needs a new realignment—with Trump, and by extension Putin, at the center.
This is not a fringe phenomenon. It is already happening. Republican voters are shifting, with polls showing more and more viewing Russia not as an adversary, but as “friendly” or even as a partner. Far-right media figures are praising Trump’s “diplomacy” while ignoring that he completely erased Ukrainian agency and Western security concerns in his statement. Some are already suggesting that it’s time to “let Russia have what it wants” so the world can move on.
But we cannot afford to move on. Because what Russia wants is not peace—it is conquest. What Putin wants is not stability—it is submission. His regime has kidnapped Ukrainian children, forcibly relocated them to Russia to be indoctrinated and erased. His army has targeted civilians with missile strikes, including attacks on hospitals, marketplaces, and apartment buildings. His intelligence services have assassinated dissidents with poison and suppressed domestic opposition through imprisonment, torture, and show trials. His propaganda machine has fueled global disinformation campaigns designed to destabilize Western democracies, including ours.
Trump knows this. And he does not care. His only interest is power—his own and that of the man who can help him retain it. That man is Vladimir Putin. The most dangerous trick Trump plays is not the outright lie. It is the reframing. It is the slow, corrosive twist that turns treason into toughness, that turns surrender into strategy. That is what is underway now.
And so this is the warning: if we let this go unchallenged, if we let them spin this into something acceptable, it will not end with rhetoric. It will end with alliances torn apart, democratic institutions further degraded, and dictators emboldened across the globe. Trump was allowed to re-enter office while actively echoing Kremlin priorities. Now we must name that for what it is: the end of American independence in foreign policy, and the final act in a long, slow betrayal.
The MAGA base will not be moved by scolding. But they may still be moved by clarity. There are those on the edge of his movement who still value American strength, who still believe in defending the innocent, who still recoil from child abductions and unprovoked wars. Those people need to be reminded that Putin is not a misunderstood statesman. He is a tyrant. And Trump is his herald.
We must inoculate ourselves—and each other—against what comes next. The normalization of treason is not a natural political progression. It is a test. It is a test of memory, of principle, of courage. If we pass it, we preserve what is left of the moral clarity that still defines America’s role in the world. If we fail it, we will watch that clarity dissolve into a fog of “both sides” confusion, autocratic sympathies, and hollow slogans about peace.
Don’t let them get away with it. Say it clearly: Trump supporting Putin isn’t okay. It never was. It never will be. And anyone trying to convince you otherwise is counting on you to forget. So don’t.
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