Anne Applebaum escreve sobre o Grande Realinhamento (de Trump para Putin) e sobre o significado do 4 de Julho, e tudo o que Trump vem fazendo contrariamente à Declaração da Independência americana:
The Great Realignment
Also: the Declaration of Independence makes interesting reading this July 4th
ANNE APPLEBAUM
JUL 4, 2025
Slowly, and not exactly imperceptibly, the United States of America is changing its geopolitical orientation. The Trump administration has made clear that it can no longer automatically be considered a strategic partner to Ukraine, or a reliable ally to Europe. Perhaps the president is not yet fully aligned with his Russian counterpart, but he is moving in that direction, much faster than many realize.
This shift has already had devastating consequences. In very clear ways, Trump’s policies are encouraging Putin’s war. For the Atlantic, I connected some of the dots:
Trump occasionally berates Putin, or makes sympathetic noises toward Ukrainians, as he did last week when he seemed to express interest in a Ukrainian journalist who said that her husband was in the military. Trump also appeared to enjoy being flattered at the NATO summit, where European leaders made a decision, hailed as historic, to further raise defense spending. But thanks to quieter decisions by members of his own administration, people whom he has appointed, the American realignment with Russia and against Ukraine and Europe is gathering pace—not merely in rhetoric but in reality.
Not for the first time, Trump’s Pentagon has abruptly blocked transfers of weapons to Ukraine. The most shocking decision concerns air defense:
Just this week, in the middle of the worst aerial-bombing campaign since the war began, the Trump administration confirmed that a large shipment of weapons, which had already been funded by the Biden administration, will not be sent to Ukraine. The weapons, some of which are already in Poland, include artillery shells, missiles, rockets, and, most important, interceptors for Patriot air-defense systems, the ammunition that Ukrainians need to protect civilians from missile attacks. Trump had suggested that he would supply Ukraine with more Patriot ammunition, which is an American product. “We’re going to see if we can make some available,” he said after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week. But what he says and what his administration actually does are very different.
Within days of receiving the news that Ukraine will have less air defense, Putin hit Kyiv, on Thursday night, with the largest air attack of the entire war. This morning, parts of the city were burning. This is what it looked like (with thanks to @kateinkharkiv.bsky.social):
But the realignment is not only military. In practice, the US is reducing sanctions on Russia, easing pressure on the economy and helping the Russians acquire the components they need to build the missiles that kill civilians. The Trump administration has also stopped fighting any kind of narrative war with Russia, dropping efforts to identify Russian propaganda, and blocking independent Russian-language media of all kinds, including our own Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:
During the Biden administration, the State Department’s Global Engagement Center regularly identified Russian disinformation operations around the world—exposing misleading websites or campaigns secretly run or directed by Russian operatives in Latin America and Africa, as well as in Europe. Trump appointees have not only dissolved the center; they also baselessly and bizarrely accused it of somehow harming American conservatives, even of having “actively silenced and censored the voices of Americans,” although the GEC had no operations inside the U.S.
At the same time, cuts to USAID and other programs have abruptly reduced funding for some independent media and Russian-opposition media. The planned cuts to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, if not stopped by the courts, will destroy one of the few outside sources of information that reaches Russians with real news about the war. Should all of these changes become permanent, the U.S. will no longer have any tools available to communicate with the Russian public or counter Russian propaganda, either inside Russia or around the world.
The result? Putin, who might otherwise have been running into real trouble right now, in his third year of an unsucceesful and costly conflict, has been encouraged and inspired to keep going. Trump has given him and his war a new lease on life.
Add all of these things together, and they are something more than just a pattern. They are a set of incentives that help persuade Putin to keep fighting. Sanctions are disappearing, weapons are diminishing, counterpropaganda is harder to hear. All of that will encourage Putin to go further—not just to try to defeat Ukraine but to divide Europe, mortally damage NATO, and reduce the power and influence of the United States around the world.
I am no longer interested in speculating about why Trump is helping Putin. But I will continue to demonstrate, over and over again, that he does.
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When in the course of human events… (July 4th, 1776)
I re-read the Declaration of Independence a few weeks ago, just to remind myself of what it contains. If you are lucky enough to live in an American town or neighborhood that stages annual readings on the 4th of July, then pay close attention this year. If you don’t, then read it yourself. (Check out the National Archives website, which has a transcription as well as photographs of the original). In essence, the Declaration was a list of things the colonists hated about the King. Here are a few which now sound familiar once again.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures (and now Trump plans, in times of peace, to create a massive, heavily armed ICE army)
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power (as when Trump moblized the marines against the will of the government of California)
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world ( aren’t tariffs the same thing?)
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences (reminds me of the deportation of people to El Salvador)
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance (The Trump administration has also taken over budgets and government programs without consent of the legislature)
We didn’t want a king in 1776 - will we tolerate one now?
