Throughout the 2016 primary election, Donald Trump has had some rather positive words for Russian president Vladimir Putin. Trump believes that America has the potential to have a positive relationship, from a position of strength, with Russia. As it turns out, Vladimir Putin, himself, is a fan of Mr. Trump.
CBS Chicago reports that Donald Trump's poll numbers show that about 33 percent of Americans support him, however CNN reports that Russian citizens poll in favor of Trump "by a landslide." Which I find very odd after Pew Research Center declares that only 15% of Russians have a positive view on America. (From a poll taken June 23, 2015)
The surprising factor is how aggressive Trump appears towards other nations in foreign policy, specifically China. Trump's website claims that Trump will place China in check by declaring China a currency manipulator, end China's illegal export subsidies, and prevent China from blackmailing us. But when Trump spoke about Russia -- Putin in specific -- he said, "I like [Putin] because he called me a genius, [Putin] said Trump is the real leader."
But where is this positivity coming from? The United States and Russia have been at a crossroads for over 50 years, now. In 2015, 85 percent of Russians had negative views of America; and now Trump is the most popular American in Russia. On April 27, Trump gave a foreign policy speech. Mid-speech, he bashed America's foreign policy in the post-cold war era. He believes that our methods of bringing Western-style democracy to foreign countries that have no interest in becoming a western democracy, have failed. When looking back you can see his point, specifically in the Vietnam War which can easily be called the worst war America has been a part of; militaryfactory.com reports that we lost 58,209 Americans -- all for the cause of westernizing a foreign country. There has been a total of 11 wars since then, and we have lost 7,559 soldiers in all, since Vietnam. The only country America has truly westernized since World War II is Korea, and we were only half successful in that endeavor. Based on the facts, Trump has some truth in our failed foreign policy in the past.
So as awkward as it sounds to say, Trump's progressiveness in foreign policy may be the key in improving foreign relations with Russia. It is almost certain that Russia's negativity towards America comes from America's agenda to change their way of life. Trump has realized that westernizing countries that don't want our influence is a waste of time, he has accepted that other countries enforce other forms of government and he is okay with that.
The whole America vs. Russia conflict started with capitalism vs. communism, and if we put that pointless argument behind us we may very well have a healthy relationship with Russia and other Communist countries to come. As much as you may hate to hear it, I personally believe other candidates could learn from Trump's theory. Here is a clip from Trump's speech, courtesy of theguardian.com.
