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The Bulwark: Trump Puts Putin Over Patriotism
The Bulwark - Trump Puts Putin Over Patriotism
Because you can’t love your country when you only love yourself.
Will Saletan
Apr 30, 2025
WHY DOES DONALD TRUMP bend over backward to excuse Vladimir Putin’s crimes and blame them on the United States? Some people think it’s bribery or blackmail. But there’s a simpler explanation, and its consequences are more serious: Trump is a pathological narcissist. He’s incapable of patriotism.
Trump talks a lot about “America First.” But he lacks the core of a genuine patriot: a sense of loyalty to something larger than—and valuable apart from—himself. In the past two months, he has displayed this pathology through a series of outbursts, lies, and rationalizations about the war in Ukraine. He has blamed the war on previous American presidents, renounced any obligation to continue or rectify their work, and embraced the Russian dictator as a fellow victim of American persecution.
Here’s what Trump has done since the end of February.
February 28
In an Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump explains his emotional bond with Putin. “Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia—‘Russia, Russia, Russia,’” says Trump. “He was accused of all that stuff. He had nothing to do with it. It came out of Hunter Biden’s bathroom. . . . The whole thing was a scam, and he had to put up with that.”
When Zelensky notes that Putin has violated previous agreements with American presidents, Trump says those violations don’t matter, because they didn’t involve Trump. “That wasn’t with me,” he scoffs. “That was with a guy named Biden who was not a smart person. That was with Obama.”
/snip
Because you can’t love your country when you only love yourself.
Will Saletan
Apr 30, 2025
WHY DOES DONALD TRUMP bend over backward to excuse Vladimir Putin’s crimes and blame them on the United States? Some people think it’s bribery or blackmail. But there’s a simpler explanation, and its consequences are more serious: Trump is a pathological narcissist. He’s incapable of patriotism.
Trump talks a lot about “America First.” But he lacks the core of a genuine patriot: a sense of loyalty to something larger than—and valuable apart from—himself. In the past two months, he has displayed this pathology through a series of outbursts, lies, and rationalizations about the war in Ukraine. He has blamed the war on previous American presidents, renounced any obligation to continue or rectify their work, and embraced the Russian dictator as a fellow victim of American persecution.
Here’s what Trump has done since the end of February.
February 28
In an Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump explains his emotional bond with Putin. “Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia—‘Russia, Russia, Russia,’” says Trump. “He was accused of all that stuff. He had nothing to do with it. It came out of Hunter Biden’s bathroom. . . . The whole thing was a scam, and he had to put up with that.”
When Zelensky notes that Putin has violated previous agreements with American presidents, Trump says those violations don’t matter, because they didn’t involve Trump. “That wasn’t with me,” he scoffs. “That was with a guy named Biden who was not a smart person. That was with Obama.”
/snip