Skip to main content
The Latest

Trump And The Right's Crush On Putin

No one was surprised yesterday when Donald Trump boasted about the kind words(link is external) he recently received from Vladimir Putin, even playing down(link is external) Russian president’s record of persecuting journalists and dissidents.

“He’s running his country and at least he’s a leader,” Trump told Joe Scarborough. “You know, unlike we have in this country.” Trump did eventually get around to condemning Putin’s more repressive actions and his invasion of Ukraine with the bold declaration: “Oh sure, absolutely.”

Trump has been heaping praise on Putin throughout his presidential campaign, even insisting that he met the Russian president when they appeared in the same 60 Minutes segment despite the fact their interviews took place on separate continents.

He specifically has hailed Putin’s “amazing” intervention in Syria, thanking him for “bombing the hell out of ISIS(link is external),” even though Russian planes rarely target the terrorist group(link is external) and much more frequently attack(link is external) the(link is external) rebels(link is external) fighting against ISIS.

Putin, of course, has led a widespread crackdown on political and religious freedom in his own country. Earlier this year, a former top government official and opposition leader was assassinated(link is external) next to the Kremlin in a mysterious case(link is external) that was likely the work of a government-tied death squad.

Beyond just propping up the brutal Syrian dictatorship, Putin oversaw Chechnya’s transformation into a mini despotic state governed by Sharia law(link is external), which may surprise Trump since he has made anti-Muslim bigotry a central part of his campaign platform.

And, of course, Putin has backed an all-out assault on the LGBT community(link is external), even criminalizing speech in favor of gay rights if it’s deemed to be “propaganda” aimed at children.

This anti-LGBT crusade may explain why so many U.S. conservatives conveniently ignore the attack(link is external) on(link is external) Protestants(link is external) by the Russian government(link is external) and (link is external) Russian-backed forces in Ukraine(link is external) while railing against the phony persecution of Christians in America. As we’ve mentioned before(link is external), Putinphilia has taken a hold over the Religious Right:

Evangelist Franklin Graham hailed Putin as a hero(link is external) for taking “a stand to protect his nation’s children from the damaging effects of any gay and lesbian agenda” even as “America’s own morality has fallen so far on this issue”; Bryan Fischer called Putin a “lion of Christianity(link is external)” and called(link is external) upon(link is external) U.S. lawmakers to adopt similar speech prohibitions; Matt Barber marveled that Putin was able to “out-Christian our once-Christian nation(link is external)”; Sam Rohrer called Putin “the moral leader of the world(link is external)”; Scott Lively lavished(link is external) praise(link is external) on(link is external) Putin(link is external) for “championing traditional marriage and Christian values(link is external)”; and Rush Limbaugh applauded Putin(link is external) for stopping “a full-frontal assault on what has always been considered normalcy.”

Officials with the World Congress of Families have lauded Putin as a savior (link is external) of the entire world(link is external). The group organized a meeting for conservative activists (link is external) at the Kremlin, which also played host to Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage, who traveled to Russia to defend the country’s anti-LGBT crackdown in face of a Western “attempts to silence those of us who stand for the truth of marriage(link is external).”

Several activists have called for the U.S. to adopt(link is external) the(link is external) same(link is external) speech(link is external) codes(link is external) as Russia.

Putin also has support from Fox News(link is external) pundits(link is external), Trump’s pal Alex Jones(link is external) and conservative(link is external) talk(link is external) radio(link is external) hosts(link is external), including one who is contemplating a move to Russia (link is external) because “it seems to be the best country left on the planet, run by a decent leader.”

The Russian leader is also trying to fund neo-fascist parties in Europe (link is external) like France’s National Front(link is external), the far-right party whose leader says that Trump’s bigotry goes too far(link is external).

Seeing that Russia is propping up hard right parties, it’s no surprise that Putin and Trump are fawning over each other.