Donald Trump calls in to Fox News for an interview in which he says total destruction in America will make the country great, like it “used to be.”
He goes on to say that he spoke with Vladimir Putin, who is “so nice,” and suggests that Putin / Russia is invested in an unexplained “win.”
The next day, Russian state media outlet RT praises Trump for his comments.
Making America Great Again
When the economy crashes, when the country goes to total hell, and everything is a disaster, then you’ll have riots to go back to where we used to be, when we were great.
Winning For Russia
We should not be knocking That country… I think we should give them the benefit of the doubt, and then go on and win something important later on, because they’re not going to be so opposed to what we’re doing…
In an article for Quartz in 2016, Sarah Kendzior explains what exactly Trump admires about Putin:
“After the USSR collapsed twenty-five years ago, Russia is no longer the center of the communist Soviet Union but rather a hyper-capitalist, authoritarian state. Dominated by oligarchs, modern Russia has retained the worst trappings of the Soviet system—such as mass surveillance and personality cults—while cracking down on political dissidents, gays and lesbians, Muslims, Jews, migrant laborers, and others who do not fit with Putin’s nationalist vision. In other words, he engages in many of the same practices Trump proposes.”
Sources
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-economy-crashing-quote/
https://video.foxnews.com/v/3179604851001#sp=show-clips
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-riots-fox-news-obamacare-putin-economy-us-coronavirus-george-floyd-a9544491.html
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fox-news-video-trump-disaster-maga_n_5c4a41d4e4b0287e5b893788
https://russian.rt.com/article/22064
Photo: Gage Skidmore