Fiona Hill says Trump ‘paved the way’ for someone more capable and less ‘insecure’ to ‘shoot a Putin in America’

• Fiona Hill in her new book warned of the long-term effects of Trump’s assault on American democracy.

• Trump may have paved the way for a more capable and less “insecure” populist to make the United States more like Putin’s Russia, she said.

• Trump had a strong case of “autocratic envy,” Hill wrote.

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Fiona Hill in her new memoir wrote that former President Donald Trump may have paved the way for a smarter populist leader to dismantle American democracy and make the country like Russia under Vladimir Putin.

“President Trump’s interpretation of executive power and his attempt to usurp the president may have paved the way for another populist president, less personally confident and more capable – someone who did his homework and was good at project management – to pull a Putin in America, “Hill wrote in the book” There’s Nothing For You Here: Finding Opportunities In The Twenty-First Century. “

Hill, who was Russia’s top adviser to the Trump administration’s National Security Council, wrote that Putin “took the presidential powers of the constitution and supported them” and also “strengthened them to the point of prolonging his own term essentially indefinitely. ”Earlier this year, Putin signed a law allowing him to remain in power for another 15 years after already ruling Russia for two decades. Putin’s critics have said he has indeed become “president for life.”

Trump staged a failed “coup”, Hill said. He wanted to stay in power – and embarked on an unprecedented effort to reverse the results of free and fair elections – but was ultimately unable to “shoot Putin”.

Trump had a controversial dynamic with Putin during his tenure. He has done everything possible to avoid criticizing the Russian leader despite the fact that relations between Moscow and Washington have reached an all-time low in recent years.

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Hill, who also wrote a biography on Putin, said many of Trump’s actions and behaviors mirrored those of the Russian leader. Trump had a strong case of “autocratic envy,” she said.

“Putin established a personalized and courageous style of leadership that others, including Donald Trump, sought to emulate,” Hill said, citing examples such as Putin in the late 1990s seizing power by promising to do so. of Russia a “great power again”. “Trump adopted an identical message in 2016.

But Hill said the “most unmistakable” parallel with Russia under Trump was its “disorganized but deadly coup attempt” during 2020. Trump began to undermine the integrity of the 2020 election from the start , suggesting baselessly that if he lost them would mean the contest was “rigged”. After his defeat, Trump falsely declared that the election was “stolen” from him. His lies about the election sparked a fatal insurgency on Capitol Hill on January 6, when lawmakers gathered to certify Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.

“Authoritarian leaders like Putin always prefer to use someone else to make their request to promote their interests in a softer and more subtle way, if they can,” she continued. “It was telling, for example, that Trump used Republican Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, along with other members of the Congressional GOP, to challenge the Electoral College count on January 6.”

Hill warned that although Trump failed in his efforts to overturn the election results, he still “successfully usurped the Republican Party.”

“In the aftermath of Trump’s disastrous reign, it was tempting to breathe a sigh of relief. But that would have been premature, as there was no indication that his dynasty was going to end,” Hill said.

The antidote to Trump’s corrosive brand of populist politics is to invest in people locally, Hill argued towards the end of his book.

When people encounter “concrete and personally measurable examples of positive change within their own immediate physical communities,” it makes them “more insightful and hopeful,” Hill wrote. “And they become less likely to be manipulated by people who claim to have their best interests at heart but who are in truth only for themselves.”

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