The Siberian Candidate: Trump putting Putin first?

If elected, would Donald Trump be Vladimir Putin’s man in the White House? This should be a ludicrous, outrageous question. After all, he must be a patriot — he even wears hats promising to make America great again.

But we’re talking about a ludicrous, outrageous candidate. And the Trump campaign’s recent behavior has many foreign policy experts wondering what kind of hold Putin has over the Republican nominee.

I’m not talking about merely admiring Putin’s performance — being impressed by the de facto dictator’s “strength,” and wanting to emulate his actions. I am talking about indications that Trump would actually follow a pro-Putin foreign policy at the expense of America’s allies and self-interest.

That’s not to deny that Trump does, indeed, admire Putin. He has repeatedly praised the Russian strongman in extravagant terms. For example, when Putin published an article attacking American exceptionalism, Trump called it a “masterpiece.”

But admiration for Putinism isn’t unusual in Trump’s party. Well before the Trump candidacy, Putin envy on the right was already widespread. For one thing, Putin is someone who doesn’t worry about little things like international law when he decides to invade a country. He’s “what you call a leader,” said Rudy Giuliani after Russia invaded Ukraine. It’s also clear that the people who chanted “Lock her up” — not to mention the Trump adviser who called for Hillary Clinton’s execution — find much to admire in the way Putin deals with his political opponents and critics.

All of this is, or should be, deeply disturbing. But what we’re now seeing from Trump and his associates goes beyond emulation and looks like subservience.

First, there was the Ukraine issue. Republican leaders have consistently taken a hard line and criticized Obama for insufficient action. The GOP platform was going to include a statement reaffirming this line, but it was watered down on the insistence of Trump representatives.

Then came Trump’s interview with The New York Times, in which he declared that even if Russia attacked members of NATO he would come to their aid only if those allies — which we are bound by treaty to defend — had “fulfilled their obligations to us.”

Some of this is Trump’s deep ignorance of policy. But is there more to the story? Is there some specific channel of influence?

We do know that Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager, has worked as a consultant for various dictators and was for years on the payroll of Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian president and a Putin ally.

And there are reasons to wonder about Trump’s own financial interests. We know nothing about the true state of his business empire, and he has refused to release his taxes. We do know he has substantial if murky involvement with wealthy Russians and Russian businesses. You might say that these are private actors, not the government — but in Putin’s crony-capitalist paradise, this is a meaningless distinction.

At some level, Trump’s motives shouldn’t matter. We should be horrified at the spectacle of a majorparty candidate casually suggesting that he might abandon American allies — just as we should be horrified when that same candidate suggests that he might welsh on American financial obligations. But there’s something very strange and disturbing going on here, and it should not be ignored.