Things Have Changed

(upbeat music) - October 18th, 2026. Tonight, Lingling Wei, Alex Leary, Thomas Grove, and Josh Dawsey of the Wall Street Journal reported that Russia's President Vladimir Putin has proposed a meeting next month with Trump and China's President Xi Jinping to decide the fate of Ukraine. The reporters explained that a three-way summit with China and the US would cement Russia's status as one of the world's three great powers. A status Putin has sought since 2000 when he entered the Kremlin. Such a summit would formally acknowledge that the US had broken from Europe and allied with Russia, a goal for Putin as he tries to take control of Ukraine. A former Russian intelligence officer told the reporters that the summit would replace the rules-based international order, established by the United States and its allies and partners after World War II, with a system that divides the globe into spheres of influence. After 10 years of Trump insisting that reports of his cooperation with Russia were a hoax. Here we are, watching one profoundly unpopular man, tear apart the global system under which we have lived for 80 years in order to climb into bed with Vladimir Putin. In just over a week, Trump has lifted sanctions on the sale of Russian oil on the global market, a way both to send desperately needed money to Russia to fund its war on Ukraine and to begin the process of reintegrating Russia into the global economy. Either Trump or Musk or both appear to have slowed down starlink and star shield. The two systems that manage communications for defense and offensive drones, respectively, making them inoperable during one of the worst Russian bombardments of the war. And on Friday, Trump waved additional sanctions Congress demanded in a recent law named for the late Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican of South Carolina. Two days before the sanctions were to go into effect. Putin confidant, Kareel Dmitriyev, who manages Russia's sovereign wealth fund, reposted an AI-generated image of the U.S. eagle standing next to a Russian bear, snarling at a British lion standing next to the flag of the European Union. The U.S. and Russia standing shoulder to shoulder against the United Kingdom and Europe with the caption, things have changed. Over the post, Dmitriyev wrote, "Together." He cheered on Trump's waving of the sanctions imposed by the Graham Act. And in response to a post claiming that Trump's move to bolster Russia had caused panic in Europe and Ukraine, posted checkmate. In the Atlantic, National Security Scholar Tom Nichols noted with evident disgust, the American commander-in-chief has abandoned the Western order, the most successful and powerful security arrangement in human history. This decision, Nichols wrote, appears to have had nothing to do with the national interest of the United States. Instead, Trump appears to have thrown out the world order because of his own personal interests, his admiration for Putin, his resentment of Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky, and quite possibly other factors that so far have remained obscured from the American public. Outrage over Trump's actions has come from across the political spectrum. Nichols notes that former federal prosecutor turned conservative commenter, Andrew McCarthy, wrote that Trump is giving Putin aid and comfort. Those words echo Article 3, Section 3 of the Constitution, which defines treason against the United States as levying war against them or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. McCarthy's blistering article in the National Review on Saturday reminds readers that Putin is a murderous dictator who is actively supporting Iran's military operations against the United States with both intelligence and drones and provoking U.S. allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO. And yet, Trump is siding with him against Ukraine, a U.S. ally. McCarthy demanded Congress hold immediate hearings about this week's shocking escalation of the Trump-Putin alliance. This backlash appears to have pushed Trump to try to justify his gutting of the Graham Act at least. This afternoon, he posted on social media, "My decision on Russia is a very simple one." He went on to claim that he didn't want to do anything that will drive foolishly Russia away from the bargaining table in the quest for a peace deal with Ukraine. He shrugged off Russia's support for Iran and its war against the U.S. by suggesting it is doing very little if anything to help the Islamic Republic of Iran compared to what they could be doing. And I want to keep it that way. And then he attacked Zelensky, blaming Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries rather than his own war on Iran for the high cost of diesel in the U.S. And claiming that Zelensky doesn't want to end this war and probably never did. Nichols tore through this screed, calling it a pathetic admission of Trump's weakness in his relationship with the Kremlin boss. The leader of the most powerful nation on the planet, Nichols pointed out, is trying to get everyone else, including the American Congress, to avoid antagonizing Putin. Instead of warning Putin, not to even think about aiding Iran. Until now, Nichols wrote, a world in which the White House is allied to the Kremlin was the stuff of paranoid fiction. Manchurian candidates and red presidents were fantasies. Now, that alliance exists. Nichols laments that Trump and Putin have fulfilled the dreams of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and the Cold War leaders who followed him, humbling and humiliating the mighty United States. The framers of the Constitution thought they had designed a system that would prevent the rise of a tyrant. They believed U.S. representatives would be so fearful of a leader's abuse of power that they would impeach any president who overstepped his authority and that U.S. senators would be so jealous of their own power they would convict and tyranny would not be able to take root. The framers especially did not anticipate that senators, to whom they deliberately gave longer terms than they gave the president, would put party over country and stand aside as a president and his appointees captured the prerogatives of the Senate. And yet, here we are. But even given the evidence of the past 10 years, it is truly astonishing to see Republicans who for more than 40 years have championed President Ronald Reagan for his stance against the Soviet Union. Stand aside as Trump trashes the post-World War II system of global security in order to ally the United States with a Russian dictator. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead and Massachusetts, recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.