President Donald Trump drew comparisons with former Republican President Richard Nixon when he posted a photo of himself pointing at Russian President Vladimir Putin in a side-by-side with Nixon doing the same with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
Trump has previously compared himself publicly to Nixon in interviews, saying he learned from Nixon and contrasted his own political support to what he described as Nixon’s lack of backing during his downfall, according to Forbes.
Newsweek reached out to the White House by email on Thursday for comment.
Why It Matters
Trump met with Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, last week to discuss the invasion of Ukraine and seek a way towards a peace deal. Many criticized the president both for his red carpet rollout to greet the Russian president as well as the aftermath, which saw Trump walk away without a deal after saying that he would see such a result as a failure.
The two world leaders spoke for two-and-a-half hours and addressed details of a potential ceasefire, and they took no questions immediately after the talks ended.
What To Know
Trump has vigorously defended his summit with Putin, writing on Truth Social on Sunday: “It’s incredible how the Fake News violently distorts the TRUTH when it comes to me. There is NOTHING I can say or do that would lead them to write or report honestly about me. I had a great meeting in Alaska on Biden’s stupid War, a war that should have never happened!!!”
However, the criticism has persisted even as Trump works towards a potential trilateral meeting that would bring Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky face-to-face for the first time since the invasion started in 2022.
Trump again defended his “peace through strength” approach by posting a picture of himself and Putin in a mirror to one of Nixon and Khrushchev. He wrote nothing in the post.
On Truth Social, the president’s native platform, many praised Trump with their own meme responses, with many of those posts repeating the “peace through strength” line that the president has used in the past while also denigrating former Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
On X, opinions varied more, with some finding the comparison unflattering – not because of Nixon’s history, which saw him resign from the presidency after his involvement in the Watergate scandal emerged, but because of the way Nixon and Trump have each approached their respective Russian counterparts.
Phillips P. Obrien, a professor of Strategic Studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, wrote that the “remarkable thing about these pictures Trump just tweeted is that he thinks people won’t see the difference between Nixon and Khrushchev disagreeing and he and Putin joking. Putin is clearly laughing.”
Another user highlighted that Khrushchev and Putin themselves are representative of different geopolitical approaches, with Khruschev responsible for returning Crimea to Ukraine while Putin annexed the region in 2014.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump, in a subsequent Truth Social message, wrote: “It is very hard, if not impossible, to win a war without attacking an invader’s country. It’s like a great team in sports that has a fantastic defense, but is not allowed to play offense. There is no chance of winning! It is like that with Ukraine and Russia. Crooked and grossly incompetent Joe Biden would not let Ukraine FIGHT BACK, only DEFEND. How did that work out? Regardless, this is a war that would have NEVER happened if I were President – ZERO CHANCE. Interesting times ahead!!! President DJT.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X, in part: “Now, each day carves out the contours of future security architecture for Ukraine. Weapons, funds, cooperation with partners, forces on the ground, in the air, and at sea. And every day, there will be new steps taken by partners to support Ukraine. Thank you to everybody helping.”
French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week wrote on X: “In Washington, alongside President Zelensky and with our partners, we reiterated to President Trump our commitment to continue uniting our efforts for a strong and lasting peace that preserves Ukraine’s interests and the security of Europeans. This peace will necessarily involve providing Ukraine with robust security guarantees, on which we have decided to work very concretely with the United States. It is also clear in our minds that pressure on Russia must continue as long as this peace has not been established.”
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