Why YouTube Is Hard to Watch: The Talking Heads Keep Getting Trump Wrong
- john raymond
- 1 minute ago
- 3 min read
There is a growing dissonance on YouTube and in the broader world of political commentary. On the surface, many talking heads claim to be offering insight, clarity, and truth about geopolitics, about democracy, about authoritarianism. But scratch a little deeper and you find a fearful class of commentators — risk-averse, soft-spoken, and blinkered by their own careerism — who refuse to say the thing that needs saying: Donald Trump is a witting Russian asset.
Not a dupe. Not misled. Not confused. Not merely manipulated. An asset. Willing. Active. Ongoing.
The Cowards in the Commentary Class
Let’s name the issue: people like William Spaniel, Jake Broe, Anders Puck Nielsen, and even Michael Weiss — though well-read and competent in many areas — have consistently stopped short of the truth. They hesitate. They hedge. They hide behind procedural language, academic dispassion, or lawyerly ambiguity. They talk about Russia’s strategy, or Trump’s “sympathies,” or the “influence” of disinformation — but they won’t cross the line into calling betrayal by its name.
And why? The answer is simple: fear.
Fear of seeming “partisan.”
Fear of losing subscribers.
Fear of being labeled a conspiracy theorist.
Fear of burning bridges in academia or media circles.
Fear of the comment section.
It’s cowardice dressed as caution. It’s laziness disguised as neutrality. And it is no longer acceptable in an age when truth itself is under siege by propaganda, when loyalty to democratic norms is being eroded by autocratic sympathizers, and when one of the loudest voices in American politics is actively aligned with the Kremlin’s interests.
What Real Analysis Demands Now
We are not in the world of Cold War diplomacy anymore. We are not in the comfortable, bipartisan myths of post-WWII American exceptionalism. We are in a world of asymmetric war — a world where influence, disinformation, and captured elites do more damage than missiles. A world where Trump is not an outlier but a model for how authoritarianism spreads in the 21st century: through chaos, projection, and loyalty laundering.
If you want to be a commentator today, you have to know this. If you want to be a strategist, a journalist, a theorist, you cannot ignore the asymmetric war being waged right now. Trump is not an aberration; he is a tool in a long-term strategy — a Russian project that weaponizes Western freedoms to undermine Western resolve. And anyone who talks about Trump and geopolitics without acknowledging this is not just missing the point. They are failing the moment.
Stop Hiding. Say It.
YouTube is full of capable minds who understand history, who understand game theory, who understand the mechanics of warfare and power. But when it comes to Trump and Russia, they blink. They lean on euphemism. They retreat to the safe zone of “interesting questions.”
There are no more interesting questions. There is only the obligation to speak.
To say: Trump’s every move since 2016 has aligned with Russian goals. To say: Trump praises autocrats and undermines allies because that is the script. To say: Trump weakens NATO, denigrates Ukraine, amplifies Kremlin disinformation, and privately assures dictators that American institutions can be bent. To say: Trump is a witting participant in an information war aimed at destroying faith in democracy — and it is working.
Find the Courage or Get Off the Stage
Vlad Vexler, in a recent video, put it clearly.
“The truth is synonymous with courage. And we must each find our own.”
That is the call. And it is not being met by far too many in the commentary space.
We don’t need more triangulators. We don’t need more political weather reports. We need voices who will piece the puzzle together, say the obvious thing, and risk the consequences.
Because truth-telling is now an act of resistance. Because ambiguity is complicity. Because every day that someone like Trump is treated as just “controversial” instead of treasonous, the fabric of the republic frays.
Who Will Say It?
If you know voices that say what has to be said — share them. If you are one of those voices — speak louder. Because this isn’t a time for deference. It’s a time for breathing fire. And if the talking heads won’t do it, we will. Because we see what they’re afraid to say.
Donald Trump is a Russian asset. And anyone not saying that is missing the story of the century.