For
nearly every other Republican politician -- from the party's past two
presidential nominees to the current field of GOP hopefuls -- the answer
is pretty clear.
"He's a bully," Jeb Bush said in June.
"Gangster and thug," intoned Marco Rubio in an October foreign policy speech.
And
two cycles ago, it was the GOP's presidential nominee John McCain who
famously stated that he had stared into Putin's eyes and "saw three
letters: a K, a G and a B," a reference to Putin's past as an agent of
the ruthless Soviet intelligence agency.
But
Trump, the 2016 Republican presidential front-runner, is bucking his
party yet again -- choosing to bear hug the Russian strongman rather
than vilify him.
For months, Trump has embraced Putin
as a world leader he would "get along very well with," a relationship
that would be rooted in the two men's similar outlook, personas and, in
some cases, overlapping policy goals. It's an international bromance
that's driving GOP establishment figures to call out Trump's ideological
incompatibility with the Republican Party in yet another arena.
After Putin praised Trump on Thursday as "bright and talented"
and "the absolute leader of the presidential race," the billionaire
trumpeted Putin's praise as a "great honor" and even shrugged off
widespread allegations that the Russian president has ordered the
killing of journalists and political dissidents.
"He's
running his country and at least he's a leader, unlike what we have in
this country," Trump said Friday morning on MSNBC. "I think our country
does plenty of killing also."
Mitt
Romney, who called Russia America's top geopolitical foe during the 2012
presidential race, took to Twitter to slam Trump on Friday.
"Important
distinction: thug Putin kills journalists and opponents; our presidents
kill terrorists and enemy combatants," Romney tweeted.
John
Kasich's campaign went so far as to release a mock press release
Saturday announcing that Trump named Putin as his running mate, dubbing
the two a "dictatorial duo."
Trump on
Saturday shrugged off the criticism from other Republicans, saying,
"They're jealous as hell because he's not mentioning" them.
"If
he (Putin) says something positive, that's a good thing. That's not a
bad thing. They try and turn it around and it's not to be turned around.
This would be good, this would be a great start," Trump said,
suggesting the U.S. and Russia should work together more closely.
McCain, meanwhile, joked Thursday about Putin's praise of Trump, mocking the pair as "a match made in heaven."
McCain isn't the only one comparing the two men.
A similar style
"Stylistically,
they are quite similar," said Masha Gessen, a Russian-American
journalist who authored the book "Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise
of Vladimir Putin."
"There's a really
aggressive posture to both men. Putin respects fighters and he respects
aggression and he doesn't respect sort of calm and deliberation," Gessen
said. "He wants a manly adversary. He wants somebody he can
understand."
Trump and Putin, two men
who have carefully crafted their public image over the last two decades,
are both known for their blunt manner and bravado.
For Putin, strength is the name of the game and the basis of the image he's cultivated at home and on the international stage.
His
press shop has released photos of him doing a range of outdoor
activities -- often topless -- from hunting to fishing to horseback
riding. And at international forums with foreign leaders, Putin seems to
do his best to project a confident air of nonchalance, letting others
know he'd rather be elsewhere as he slouches into his chair.
Meanwhile,
as Trump entered the presidential race last summer, he immediately
sought to project his testosterone-infused candidacy as the image of
strength and quickly cast his opponents as "weak" and "low energy."
Building his political rise on one controversial comment after the next, Trump has never backed down.
To
hear Trump describe it, his administration's international posture
would have echoes of Putin's: a leader defined by his fortitude,
brashness and brinkmanship.
As Trump frequently says on the trail, "I would be so tough, you wouldn't believe."
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
And
both Trump and Putin appear to view the world through a similar prism:
that of a zero sum game full of winners and losers -- and of adversaries
lurking around every corner.
"Putin
sincerely believes that Russia is surrounded by enemies and the job of a
president is to be scary enough to scare them off," Gessen said, adding
that Putin embodies a "long Russian tradition" of viewing the outside
world as a collection of antagonists.
Trump also sees the U.S. as facing a world of enemies and opponents whose leaders are "much, much smarter" than America's.
"China
is killing us. Mexico is killing us. Japan is killing us," Trump has
said at numerous rallies over the last six months while talking about
trade, one of his primary issues. "They're eating our lunch."
That
helps explain why Putin's image -- and the contrast it offers to the
more diplomatic-minded President Barack Obama -- appeals to Trump.
Projecting strength
"He's
trying to make the point that Putin is strong and it takes somebody
strong to deal with him," said Charlie Black, a top adviser to McCain's
2008 presidential bid.
But the
connection Trump is seizing on, Black said, ignores Putin's track record
-- and the GOP's, consistent since McCain, of eyeing Putin as a bad
actor on the world stage.
While George
W. Bush had heaped praise on the Russian leader after meeting with him
in 2001, making the now much-derided remark that he'd "looked the man in
the eye" and "was able to get a sense of his soul," Bush himself later
hardened his stance toward Putin and so have Republicans ever since.
"It
just goes to show that Donald's a celebrity first and not a serious
proposer of policy or observer of the international scene," Black added.
Where
Trump does delve into the realm of policy, he finds himself lining up
with Putin in some notable international hotspots, especially Syria.
Putin
has stepped up Russia's military involvement there in recent months,
which many in Washington view as Putin challenging the U.S. presence in
the region.
While nearly all of Trump's
fellow Republican presidential contenders have slammed Obama as too
meek in combatting ISIS and called for boosting U.S. military engagement
in Syria, Trump has argued the opposite.
Despite
brash rhetoric that he would "bomb the s---t out of ISIS" in Iraq,
Trump has argued against deepening American involvement in Syria in
favor of a greater role for his new friend in the East.
But Russian
bombing runs have largely hit non-ISIS rebels and Putin's government
hasn't sought to conceal its primary objective in Syria: bolstering the
regime of Syrian President Bashar el-Assad, who is accused of barrel
bombing his own people and committing widespread war crimes. That hasn't
sat well with the Obama administration, which has called for Assad's
removal.
And in Ukraine, where Russia
has taken an aggressive posture supporting separatist rebels after first
annexing Crimea, Trump has also called for a lighter U.S. footprint
despite the bulk of his party urging stronger action there.
Trump
on Friday argued that the U.S. should "do a little following" in
Ukraine -- where the U.S. has sought to back up Kiev in the face of
Moscow's aggression -- calling instead for European allies like Germany
to take up a leadership role.
Germany,
though, has been one of the central players in brokering a peace
settlement in the conflict. Trump's statement also ignores Washington's
concerns that Russian aggression, if left unchecked, could push further,
threatening key Eastern European allies like Poland.
In both Syria and Ukraine, Trump's foreign policy proposals could leave Putin with a freer hand.
"Why
wouldn't Putin like him?," said Leon Aron, the top Russia adviser to
Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential bid. "Here's a man who knows nothing
about Russian history, Putin's trajectory, Putin's domestic politics,
what happened since 2000 in Russia when Putin took over and who
presumably concentrates only on what he reads in the headlines."
He concluded, "That would be a wonderful U.S. president for Russia to have."
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