Eric Levitz
Appearances
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
Yeah, well, the American right responded as it responds to most things that Donald Trump does very positively. In fact, I think it wasn't just the fact that Trump personally did this, but that substantively on the MAGA right, on the nationalist American right, there's a real appetite to see the United States stand up to Ukraine and Zelensky and project the kind of line that Trump did. So
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
You saw the American Conservative magazine hailed Trump's performance as a great clarifying moment in which a U.S. president finally stood up to the warmongering Washington foreign policy blob. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon lauded the administration as giving a masterclass in how to deal with an entitled punk.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
And you sort of saw similar sentiments from other conservative influencers and social media users and Republican politicians.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
So I think they don't or a significant segment doesn't. And I think that there's really two really distinct reasons for that, depending on what part of the right you sit on. Among hardline American social conservatives, there is just outright fondness for Putin's Russia that's been this presence within the movement since about 2013, when Putin enacted what he called an anti-propaganda law.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
It was also simultaneous with a broader crackdown on LGBT rights within Russia. American social conservatives, who at the time were dealing with an Obama-era advance in gay rights and social liberalism, really took inspiration from this, and Putin in the years after really started casting himself as a defender of traditional Christian morality against an increasingly decadent West.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
And so there's a part of the American right that simply likes and supports Vladimir Putin, sees him
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
as kind of representing god's side in this new cultural cold war in which ukraine is kind of the front for this decadent european pro-gay cultural movement and that putin is essentially pushing back against this and so that informs their views of the ukraine russia conflict and thus their views of zelensky
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
Yeah, so I think that this is a very marginal force on the level of the American population as a whole. I think about 8% of Americans have expressed a positive view of how Vladimir Putin handles world affairs. I think that it's overrepresented, though, an oversubscribed view among Republican elites. And, you know, particularly, I think those... in the general orbit of J.D. Vance.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
And so to this segment, Zelensky is a sinister figure who maybe some of them will allow that he's doing the right thing for Ukraine because Ukraine needs America to intervene, although not all of them would say that, but they pretty much uniformly see him as fundamentally irresponsible and potentially inviting a nuclear war.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
Yeah, like I said, I think it's a little bit that, and then there are, you know, for the purposes of telling a compelling narrative, I think, but also maybe it's felt, you know, figures like Joe Rogan have actually really had a strong emotional and negative reaction to Zelensky. So Rogan has implied that he's addicted to cocaine and said that, you know, Zelensky is basically...
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
I think that there's a broader... group of conservatives who don't have any particular ill will to Zelensky, but just fundamentally oppose the goal of fighting for Ukrainian democracy. And then there are others who actually specifically have animus towards him. Notably, the Russian government has also at times implied that Zelensky is addicted to cocaine.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
So I think that there's some specific narrative here that I'm not fully versed in. But yeah, this seems to be a meme.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
Yeah, I think that there is definitely mixed feelings and there is declining American support for involvement in the Ukraine war, particularly as Republicans move more against it.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
I don't think it does. I think that there is a reasonable argument that as part of a comprehensive strategy for forcing an end to the conflict, the United States should encourage Ukraine to prepare itself for making some territorial concessions in the interests of peace. Because Russia has some advantages in a long-term war of attrition, it has a lot more people. It has a lot more resources.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
And so there's an argument that Ukraine should be interested in the kind of deal that Trump sometimes expresses fondness for.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
But an effective version of that strategy, in my view, would require the United States to credibly threaten to fund Ukraine's war effort indefinitely. So that Russia actually has an incentive to come to the table.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
If Ukraine is going to be starting to draw down the military supplies it received from America, then six months from now, Russia might be in a position to conquer a lot more territory than they are today. Giving them that impression is not a recipe for a near-term peace. So what is? If I had a really good answer to that, I think that I would be potentially making more money at a different employer.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
I think it is a very difficult situation. I mean, on the Ukrainian side, in order to get Ukraine comfortable with signing a peace agreement, I think you really need to have some kind of assurance that its security is going to be protected if it does make concessions. I think that Zelensky is in a position where he really does not...
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
have a good choice beyond trying to win back the Trump administration's favor, because the path for Ukraine to really get decent settlement of this conflict is much narrower if the United States is not in its corner.