Vitamin R: With Iran in the Headlines, It Is Easy to Forget that Putin Is the Main Bad Guy— Trump Is Just a Henchman
- john raymond
- Jun 25
- 2 min read
The headlines are dominated by Iran again—missile strikes, nuclear sites, regional escalations. And while the danger is real, the fixation is dangerous. Because it lets the true villain slip back into the shadows. The world’s most destabilizing force isn’t Tehran. It’s Moscow. And the man pulling strings behind the curtain is Vladimir Putin. His most dangerous weapon? Donald Trump.
It is not alarmist to say this. It is simply the reality we live in. Putin has been undermining the West for over a decade, methodically and deliberately. Cyberattacks, disinformation, assassinations, proxy wars, and energy blackmail—each one part of a broader campaign to weaken democracies, fracture alliances, and rebuild an empire. Iran plays its role, of course. But Putin writes the script.
Trump, meanwhile, remains the most powerful asset Putin has ever placed inside the Western system. Soullessly, Trump aligns himself over and over with Russian interests. He attacks NATO. He praises dictators. He undermines Ukraine. And when the world needs unity against authoritarianism, he offers only chaos and ego.
So as the bombs fall in the Middle East and the cable panels light up with maps of Iran, remember: Putin wants this distraction. He thrives on it. Iran draws our eyes. But Putin continues his assault on Europe. He still occupies swaths of Ukraine. He still disrupts elections. He still exploits global crises. And now, with Trump once again in the White House, he has a henchman in place to keep America divided, NATO paralyzed, and autocracy emboldened.
We cannot afford to forget the order of operations here. Iran is a problem. But Putin is the architect of the global authoritarian movement. And Trump is the facilitator—willing, compromised, and simply too craven to care.
The sooner we remember who the real bad guys are, the sooner we can stop playing into their hands.
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