Putin's American friends

America has two types of exceptionalist. One believes the US is a unique force for good in the world. The other blames the world's ills on America. What they share is incuriosity about non-Americans. Whether light or dark, only America has agency. The light version has been badly discredited by wars of choice in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Negative exceptionalists have thus been on the rise. Their long-held expectation of Russia's victory over Ukraine is starting to look possible.

Though he follows neither school, President Donald Trump's ending of what remains of US support for Ukraine makes him the dark exceptionalists' harbinger. Those applauding his pro-Russia tilt come from the Maga right and what used to be called the tankie left. During the cold war, American tankies saw the Soviet Union as the anti-imperialist bulwark against a rogue America. Like Tucker Carlson from the right, today they seek to explain Vladimir Putin.