This Is What Trump 2.0 Means for Russia

Putin is both relieved and giddy at the prospect of the chaos descending on Washington.

Courtesy of the President of Russia

As is the tradition since we left Russia, we call my wife’s parents in St. Petersburg and ring in the new year with them. This year was no different, and three hours before our start in 2025, we were gathered in a friend’s kitchen with glasses of wine at the ready. Cutting through the excited anticipation of the ringing of the bells on the Kremlin clock tower, I could hear HIS voice in the background.

“Can you show me the TV,” I asked my mother-in-law. Surprised I wanted to see the man I consider a murderous demon, she turned the iPad so we could watch him offer up his usual crock of “I want peace, but THEY don’t, so I will defend you, my great Russian family.”

As I looked into his eyes this year, I noticed a sense of merriment that had been missing in Putin’s demeanor since he made the colossal mistake of invading Ukraine nearly three years ago. His eyes were brighter than usual, making it seem that maybe the dictator had enjoyed a glass or two of the bubbly before making his pre-recorded speech — Russia has 11 time zones, and everyone gets the same speech.

In the way that capital cities of all our enemies are celebrating Trump’s return, Moscow is no different. In fact, the festivities in Moscow are probably even a bit louder and more mirth-filled than in Beijing and Tehran, for example. To begin with, much of the reason Trump won the first time was thanks to Russia’s behind-the-scenes toiling on social media in 2016. This time around, Russia was active in planting lies in support of Trump, but they were mostly amplified by Musk and other bro influencers. Putin presented them with a master class in 2016, and they paid attention.

When things between Moscow and the West started getting particularly tense during the darkest days of the Ukrainian war, the Kremlin once made a comment saying how grateful they were that Joe Biden was the president. Not because he was weak like rightwingers and Trumpist cultists wrongly think, but because the Kremlin appreciated the sense of diplomatic predictability that the foreign affairs expert Biden brought to the table. When things get hot, there are traditional channels used between competent diplomats. There have been a few times during the war when things quickly could have gotten out of hand but did not. The Kremlin’s suggestion that had Trump been president, the unpredictability — chaos — of Trump might have led to a larger, much more deadly war for the world.

Today, however, is much different as Ukraine seems to be barely holding on. If there was ever any hope that Ukraine could push Russia out, that hope now is gone. The war has devolved into one of attrition. Thousands die on both sides, and after months of battles for spots of land now turned into fresh graveyards, Ukrainian troops pull back, and the process begins anew. The lunacy put forth by Trump is that he will end the war in a day has filled Moscow with optimism that the orange fool will agree to most anything so long as the war ends — which means Ukraine will be forced to accept very unappealing terms or fight the war without any U.S. support. Putin is confident that 2025 will once and for all bring victory to Moscow, albeit a pyrrhic one.

Despite Moscow’s loss of Syria and a lot of anti-Moscow agitation in the countries of Russia’s “near abroad,” which means the former Soviet republics, ending the “special military operation” against Ukraine will considerably free Putin up. No longer distracted, he can again focushis black magic on disrupting peace and anti-Moscow sentiment worldwide. Trump, as he did during his first term, will give Putin the freedom to stir up as much shit as his evil little heart desires, which means forces of liberalism will suddenly find themselves on Putin-created hit lists.

Cultists like to imagine that Biden’s weakness pushed Putin to invade Ukraine. This is ignorance, pure and simple. Biden was one of the best presidents we had in terms of foreign affairs. He knows the world like few presidents before him did. It is nonsense that he should have given Ukraine more powerful weapons at the beginning of the war. No one could have predicted how clown-like the Russian army had become; no one could have predicted how fatally corrupt the Russian military is; no one could have predicted that Putin’s redlines were so moveable. The world feared a nuclear holocaust in 2022 and 2023. As the president, when a major nuclear power tells you they will blow up the world if you do a certain thing, you listen. By 2024, we figured out that Putin had few options for retaliation, so more significant offensive weapons began to flow.

Putin’s decision to invade came about because of the four years of Trumpian chaos. For four years, Putin did what he wanted: Imprisoning the opposition and assassinating whoever he felt needed to die. When Syria coughed, Putin bombed hospitals to cure them of that cough. Putin was unhindered, cocky even, and his overconfidence led to a sense that the chaos unfolding in the U.S., thanks to Trump’s criminality and incompetence, meant that President Biden would be too distracted to defend Ukraine. Trump had wrecked the U.S. in so many ways, going so far as to try to hold onto power by force, that Putin decided, “Why not?”

The era of “Why not” has returned to the Kremlin. With the renewed slogan being printed on colorful banners, posters, balloons, and party favors and hung in the corridors, optimism reigns supreme in the Kremlin. Fresh flowers have returned to the canteen, and Putin can even be heard whistling as he slinks around, appearing out of nowhere to suddenly be sitting at tables or standing next to people chatting among themselves (“Oh, Jesus, Vladimir Vladimorovich, how did you get there?”)

Tomorrow begins a new day for the Kremlin. Mark your calendars. January 20th, 2025, is the day America and Russia aligned to turn the world upside downand end liberal democracy everywhere — once and for all.