WASHINGTON ― On the wall overlooking the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office is a portrait of the 40th president, Ronald Reagan. If it could move, it would likely turn its back in shame at the words and actions this week by the 47th president.

“Absolutely obscene,” said Tom Nichols, a self-described Reaganite and former Naval War College professor, about Donald Trump’s capitulation to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. “He ought to take that picture down.”

Reagan labeled the Soviet Union “the evil empire” for its human rights abuses and expansionist foreign policy. Trump regularly praises Putin as a “strong” leader.

Reagan pushed for freedom for Eastern Europe from Soviet hegemony. Trump victim-blames Ukraine, saying the former Soviet republic brought Putin’s invasion on itself.

Reagan in 1987 stood in Berlin, at the Brandenburg Gate between East and West and, in a speech in a speech that marked the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union, demanded of its final leader: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

Trump in 2025, when pressed on whether Putin was mainly responsible for the destruction in Ukraine, answered: “I get tired of listening to that, I’ll tell you what.”

In just a single week, Trump has repeated Putin’s talking points that Ukraine, not Russia, was somehow responsible for Russia’ now three-year-long invasion of its neighbor. He called Ukraine’s democratically elected president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a “dictator” while offering kind words for Putin, who has had political opponents and critics murdered. He pushed Ukraine to pay protection money, in the form of handing over mineral rights, if he wants American help going forward. And he has demanded that Ukraine offer several concessions to bring about the end of the war, including giving up territory Putin has seized, while asking nothing of Russia.

Trump justified that approach by arguing that the Russians “have the cards” because they seized Ukrainian........

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