Trump’s refusal to criticise Putin is grotesque – and a gift to his White House rivals
If you asked me to find a quote from the former president insulting Trudeau or Merkel, May or Macron, I would have it for you in minutes, writes Jon Sopel. But when it comes to the Russian leader, Trump is silent – which is a huge boon to his only credible Republican contender, Nikki Haley
It’s CPAC time. And if that doesn’t get your juices flowing, let me try to enthuse you. It is the conference of the Conservative Political Action Committee, taking place just a few miles from Washington DC.
It is a bit like the Conservative Party conference, but with less tweed and fewer young men dressing as though they wished they were 50. And less debate. Debate is done: this is now where the Maga crowd goes to pay homage to their undisputed king and leader, Donald Trump.
It is where the invited speakers talk about the deep state, and how the government is being taken over by “trans activists” and “environmental extremists”. And how American values are being undermined by the left-wing views emanating from the “Biden White House”.
And that was just Liz Truss. No, really.
The story she told this week – including having to explain what a quango is to her bemused American audience – was of how her government was brought down by these malign forces who conspired to thwart her.
Maybe I remember this wrong, but when Truss became prime minister, didn’t she fire the Treasury’s top civil servant, blindside the Bank of England and ignore the Office for Budget Responsibility – which then totally spooked the markets when the mini-Budget was unveiled? Those very markets that she puts all her faith in. As I say, maybe my memory is playing tricks – but, honestly, where was the deep state when you needed it?
Anyway, tempting as it is to go down this route, my brief is to do US politics, not British. But worthy of note is that this conference, which has now become more a place for cult-like devotion to Trump than a forum for a genuine discussion of ideas, has also attracted Truss – and, of course, Nigel Farage.
CPAC is now run by the power couple, Matt and Mercedes Schlapp. Mercedes had been strategic communications director to Trump when he was president. And I remember having a long conversation in her West Wing office on why Trump should do an interview with me ahead of a forthcoming trip to the UK. She had the firmest views on British politics, which seemed to be in inverse proportion to her knowledge of the subject.
But on the state of the US, they know their terrain. And the high point of the CPAC conference will be the appearance later today of Donald Trump. Both are utterly convinced that nothing can block his path to victory in November against Biden.
Except this weekend it is also the South Carolina primary – the state of the former governor, Nikki Haley. Trump will win it, but she is becoming a real thorn in his side. Unlike virtually every other Republican you care to mention, she is refusing to buckle and bend. Indeed, anything but. “I feel no need to kiss the ring. And I have no fear of Trump’s retribution. I’m not looking for anything from him,” she told supporters this week.
This came at a Haley press conference, which her campaign had cunningly told news organisations would be a statement “on the state of the race”. Cunning, because all the right-wing cable channels assumed this was going to be her announcing that she was pulling out. So, for the first time, they took her news conference live – and “boom”, she stuck it to Trump.
The death of Alexei Navalny – and more particularly Donald Trump’s reaction to it – has allowed her the space to sharpen her attacks on the former president. For days after Navalny’s death, Trump said nothing. But when he broke his silence, it was to compare what happened to Navalny to what the US justice system was doing to him. A parallel, which at your most kind, you would say is imprecise. Or, if you were being a little more caustic, you might describe as grotesque.
But it has allowed Haley to depict Trump as in thrall to Putin – there has been no criticism of the Russian president from him. In fact, find me a single criticism that Trump has ever made of Putin. When he was president, if you had set me that challenge over Trudeau or Merkel, May or Macron, I could have furnished you with quotes in seconds. But Putin, nada.
This narrative that he would be weaker on the world stage than Haley; that he is too in love with authoritarian leaders; that he would undermine Nato is potentially damaging at a time of such heightened geopolitical risk.
Her remarks are certainly being lapped up by the Biden White House, who are turning them around in record time to put them out on their social media channels.
So why doesn’t Haley just pack up her tent and go home? It’s a decent question. Realistically she has no chance whatsoever of beating Trump to the Republican nomination, which in turn means the millions it is costing her campaign to stay in the race is money down the swanny. There is, though, another perspective – one short-term, the other long.
If Trump were to fall – because of his mounting legal difficulties or the state of his health – she would be well placed to fill the void. She is the candidate the Democrats fear the most. And they fear her because that is what their polling is telling them.
The longer-term perspective is this: she is 52 years old. She could stay out of politics until the 2040 race and still be younger than Trump was when he won in 2016. Let’s say Trump does run in November but loses again, then there will be vindication for her in having made a more Reaganite argument to Republicans – about limited government and the projection of strength abroad.
Haley may be about to go down in flames in her home state of South Carolina this weekend, but she’s playing a longer game. And, belatedly, rather effectively.
Jon Sopel is the former BBC North America editor and now presents Global’s ‘The News Agents’ podcast
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