While right-wing media sources cheer on Russian President Vladimir Putin and argue that Ukrainains should just lay down their arms and surrender, they missed something.
NATO, its member nations individually, and a international community of activists have not only risen to oppose Putin, but the economic sanctions imposed so far are going to pinch Russia’s tenuous financial standing for a very long time. The ruble is now worth a penny and the Russian central banks have tripled the intertest rate for borrowing.
It’s unlikely Putin anticipated this and more importantly, he has now emboldened his political opposition. The political unrest (mostly with protests) in Russia has grown alarmingly and it’s not as if Putin’s military invasion was popular - a mere 10% of Russians support it. Were he in a Western democracy, he’d be looking at his political gurus for a miracle. Instead, he has an angry oligarchs asking him “where’s my money?”.
Meanwhile in the U.S.A., the political stakes for the GOP just got higher. Plenty of Republicans have come out in support of Ukraine and had to dance around the Trump landmine. Supporting Ukraine means opposing Trump even if it is not said out loud. Just ask Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) who was on Meet the Press yesterday.
And recent polling has put Trumpism into perspective. Seventy-four percent of American support President Biden’s actions to support Ukraine and punish Putin. The 26% who oppose Biden are committed Trumpists. It’s not difficult math to see that roughly nearly 45% of the Republicans are in full revolt to a key component to Trumpism - supporting political strongmen worldwide but especially Putin.
The only question right now is how much political capital can Biden gain from this. With the State of the Union speech before Congress tomorrow, President Biden has the opportunity to get political support in his efforts to aid Ukraine and put Donald Trump in poor political position.
While Trump and Put might look like they are merely going to take a short term political hit, the reality is that the long term consequences bode for much worse. It’s unlikely sanctions will be lifted without concrete guarantees, which means the Russian economy will be in shambles for years. And virtual every ethnic-Eastern European in the U.S. can be messaged about how Trumpism, Putinism, and the GOP have sided against them in 2022 and 2024.