This week, Donald Trump twice blamed Ukraine for starting its war with Russia, but it might not be the worst thing he’s said recently.
I can think of only three ways to understand why Trump would say that Ukraine started the war. He has fallen under the sway of Vladimir Putin’s propaganda. He is, and always has been, a Russian asset. Or, he uses words solely to stir up trouble that will distract from other more important matters. Depressingly, I think it is the latter.
As I write this, the United States is objecting to an allied statement on the third anniversary of the war because it calls Russia the “aggressor.” In short, we’re taking Russia’s side. That is a grim fact as Trump tries to start peace talks on the war without consulting allies or including the Ukrainians.
But what should worry us most isn’t derailed diplomacy against authoritarians overseas, but a dictatorial turn domestically.
There is always the danger that Trump is just playing games to distract and destabilize his opponents at home, where things are not going so well. Trump gives the impression of furious action in the executive branch, but many of his moves have been stymied and others have resulted in embarrassing backtracking. Changing the long-entrenched government of a republic is hard.
He’s accidentally laid off nuclear security workers and then had to hire them back in a rush to keep nuclear weapons and sites safe. He’s laid off key agricultural inspectors working to stop the spread of the bird flu devastating chicken farmers and sending egg prices into orbit, despite Trump’s promises to lower them. He’s laid off workers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fighting an ominous outbreak of tuberculosis while preparing for the next pandemic, which may well come from the bird flu that has already jumped species into cattle. Deportations of undocumented immigrants are going more slowly than the administration promised.
His domestic moves, led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, over the objections of helpless members of the Cabinet and old-hands in the bureaucracy, seem designed to highlight all the important things government does more effectively than expose government waste.
In the courts, he faces dozens of lawsuits filed by fired employees, activist groups and governors that are succeeding in the initial rounds of litigation, with injunctions derailing Trump’s plans over and over.
In the Republican-controlled Congress, nothing much at all is getting done beyond rubber-stamping Trump’s Cabinet. That’s an important job, but for all the president’s furious production of executive orders, if Congress doesn’t back them with legislation, all his changes could be ephemeral.
As Trump gets frustrated, there’s a danger that the authoritarian-friendly tone of his foreign policy bleeds into an authoritarian approach to domestic policy. Vice President J.D. Vance has already claimed that the executive branch doesn’t necessarily have to obey the rulings of federal judges. Trump has posted AI-generated images of himself online wearing a crown and royal regalia.
And for all the anger at what Trump has said about Ukraine this week, his words last week were more threatening to democratic values. “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” the president wrote on his Truth Social network.
That’s a statement that could have been endorsed by any of the 20th century despots who killed and imprisoned millions. It could be the motto of today’s dictatorial regimes in Russia, China and Iran who, while so far less profligate with the bloodletting, maintain the same iron grip on the people they oppress.
It is also a statement that could have been made by the two men who horrifyingly tried to kill Trump. The resort to political violence is rarely one-sided.
That’s the scary part. If Trump’s idea spreads — not just to the supporters cheering his pardons for Jan. 6 rioters who attacked police officers — but to the opponents who already compare him to Hitler, it is a recipe for disaster.
We should all be outraged by Trump’s betrayal of the brave Ukrainian people, but they have a united Europe to back their fight for freedom. If Trump betrays the American people and begins law-breaking here, who will be there to have our backs?
–David Mastio is a national opinion columnist for The Kansas City Star and McClatchy.
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