In a way, we should all be thankful for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin‘s bromance. After all, the two men each command the world’s largest arsenals of nuclear weapons, so warm relations between the United States and Russia at least make nuclear holocaust less likely.
Unfortunately, Trump and Putin aren’t best buds because of a shared desire for world peace, but because they recognize in each other the same hunger for power, control, and dominance over the rest of the world. It’s also a very one-sided partnership, with Putin and his team running rings around the perpetually bewildered Trump and his team of incompetent morons.
All of which means that despite it being the middle of winter, it’s also springtime in Moscow. As a measure of how Putin is celebrating getting Donald wrapped around his little finger, take a look at yesterday’s issue of Kremlin-friendly newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. They say:
Russian newspaper today:
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) December 29, 2025
“America no longer sees our country as a threat…The US leader’s philosophy is closer to the values of Russia’s president, not the politicians of the Old World…he sees Europe as a liberal stronghold that must be destroyed…”
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“America no longer sees our country as a threat. The threat is now militaristic Europe. The US leader’s philosophy is closer to the values of the President of Russia, not the politicians of the Old World. For Donald, Russia is no enemy. It is a possible partner in future joint projects.Because he understands: a clash between two nuclear powers means the Apocalypse. But Europe he sees as a liberal stronghold that must be destroyed to Make America Great Again.”
Wrapped around Putin’s little finger
For Trump, geopolitics is simple. Many European leaders openly criticize him and his administration, European citizens overwhelmingly dislike him and openly protest whenever he visits, and the European Union regularly penalizes Trump allies and responds to his tariffs in kind.
But Putin is flattering him at every opportunity and telling him exactly what he wants to hear. Plus, Trump and his colleagues are clearly attracted to the open corruption in Russian politics, the brutal crackdowns on political and social dissidents, and their open aggressive militarism. Why wouldn’t Trump cozy up to Putin?
Even so, if Europe really were openly threatened by Russian troops, we have to hope the United States would still intervene on its behalf. Despite everything, America is far closer culturally to Europe than to Russia, and Americans from across the political spectrum would revolt at the sight of Putin’s tanks rolling down Paris’s Champs-Élysées while Trump twiddles his thumbs and looks away.
Whatever the case, right now, Europe is caught between two power-mad autocrats. The time may come when they have to resist Russia at their borders, and if they have to do that without US assistance, they need to prepare for that eventuality.
