Robert Delaney

On Balance | Can US Republicans stop party’s authoritarian drift under Trump?

The former president, who looks set to win the party nomination for another White House run, can be expected to bring the US more in alignment with Putin’s Russia, with help from the likes of senators Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Former president Donald Trump (centre left) sits in the courtroom before the start of closing arguments in his civil business fraud trial at the New York Supreme Court on January 11. Public attention on the multimillion-dollar court rulings against Trump has overshadowed that on the repercussions of Trump’s Nato speech. Photo: Pool Photo via AP

Robert Delaney

Published: 5:30am, 20 Feb 2024Updated: 6:52am, 20 Feb 2024

For anyone with a stake in the remains of the geopolitical and economic order established and enforced by Washington and its allies, the US$450 million rulings against Donald Trump in New York state are a problem.

They have pushed the former president’s declaration that any Nato ally not spending enough on defence should be attacked by Russia almost entirely out of the news cycle.

Only in the vortex of controversy that constantly surrounds Trump can a statement that portends the possible end of the post-WWII order if he wins back the White House fade so quickly. Had any other US president said this, Washington, Ottawa, London, and Brussels would have convulsed.

Never mind that Nato is not a dues-collecting entity, but rather a grouping that pledges defence spending levels. These expenditures have increased across the bloc since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. But in Trump’s telling, Washington’s most important allies are deadbeats, better off in the Kremlin’s clutches.

Not all Republicans are watching their party’s drift into the orbit of authoritarian nationalism with a shrug, however.

Nikki Haley, who’s still far behind Trump in polling for the party’s presidential nomination, has blasted her front-running opponent’s praise for Putin after the death of Alexei Navalny. Unfortunately, the majority of her party is now so comfortable with ideological contradictions that her stand will underscore her differences with Trump.