The Trump Bump: Republicans Are Increasingly Smitten with Vladimir Putin

From Trump with Love.

Russian President Vladimir Putin relaxing in the Siberian wilderness in August 2017.Alexei Nikolsky/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Vladimir Putin—invader of Ukraine, enemy of gay rights, election-disturber, and generally shirtless autocrat—good or bad? For Republicans and Democrats, this used to be a simple question. No longer. 

New data from the Pew Research Center shows a sharp partisan divide emerging when it comes to Americans’ opinions of Putin and Russia. Nearly one-third of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents now say they have confidence in Putin “to do the right thing concerning world affairs.” Only 10 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say the same thing. 

When Pew asked the same question in 2014, there was no split between Republicans and Democrats: Just 15 percent of both groups were confident Putin would do the right thing. Republicans are now 21 points more likely than Democrats to trust Putin, the largest gap since Pew began asking about him in 2006.

The reasons for the Party of Reagan’s newfound fondness for Putin are perhaps not hard to discern. Back in 2013, then-reality TV star Donald Trump tweeted, “Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow – if so, will he become my new best friend?”

As a politician, Trump has called Putin a “very smart cookie” who is “much smarter, much more cunning” than Barack Obama. 

“I respect Putin,” Trump said in November. “He’s a strong leader.” In an era of hyper-partisan tribal fealty, members of the party he has taken over increasingly agree.

Overall, just 20 percent of Americans have some or a lot of confidence in Putin doing the right thing in world affairs, compared to 29 percent of Canadians. Fifty-one percent of Americans have no “confidence at all.”

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate