The Ugly American

“For several years now, Russia has been engaged in what NATO itself describes as a campaign of hybrid warfare against Western countries—a sustained effort employing espionage, sabotage, cyberattacks, infrastructure disruption, assassination plots, and other covert actions designed to weaken NATO while remaining below the threshold of open war. These latest incidents are part of that campaign.” (“Russia’s Hybrid War Against NATO Escalates”, Substack by Michael Sellers, August 17, 2026)

This pattern suggests that Russia’s covert Cold War against Europe is intensifying just as Donald Trump appears poised to make what could be his final move toward transforming the United States from a democracy into a totalitarian state.

“J. Michael Luttig has called efforts to overturn presidential elections and challenge democratic norms a “grave threat” to American democracy. He famously advised then-Vice President Mike Pence that the vice president had no constitutional authority to alter election results on January 6, 2021, warning that doing so would plunge the country into a constitutional crisis.” (AI Overview) The Hill quoted Judge Luttig when he said, “For the first time in American history, an American president has corrupted democracy itself and the rule of law in America. And he got away with it.”

Trump has warned Americans that he may either declare a national emergency or direct Congressional Republicans to block newly elected Democrats from being sworn in after the 2026 and 2028 elections. As a reminder, Vladimir Putin was legally elected in 2000 to serve a four-year term, which was later changed to 6 years. After consolidating power and intimidating the 450 members of the Russian State Duma, he changed the laws to extend his hold on the presidency.

Once Trump is permanently installed as the President of the United States and has acquired loyal but violent troops (ICE = +22,000 members, former Jan. 6^th insurrectionists (+1500 members), Russian Organized Crime (unknown but estimated at 2 million), and potentially the National Guard) – he too will rule by fear. In fact, when Trump was interviewed by Bob Woodward for the book FEAR, published in 2018, Trump said “Real power is the word fear.”

Aleksandr Dugin authored The Foundations of Geopolitics, published in 1997 in Moscow—three years before Vladimir Putin was elected president. Because many of the book’s aims appeared to align closely with Putin’s later agenda, some have suggested Putin was the ghost writer or helped shape it. This book outlines a “neo-imperial strategy for Russia to establish a vast Eurasian Empire to counter Western influence. The text advocates for the annexation of Ukraine, destabilization of the United States, and breaking up the European Union, while forging alliances with nations like Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Syria, China, Libya, and others.” (Wikipedia) This group of countries closely parallels most of Trump’s presidential actions over the past eighteen months – troop withdrawals, treaties shredded, gas/oil confiscated illegally, and people murdered.

The developments now unfolding in the United States, Ukraine, Iran, and other countries were described in a strategy published in 1997—nearly 30 years ago. It was largely ignored then and remains insufficiently heeded today. By then, Trump’s vanity and conduct had made him a useful target for Putin’s plan. Thirty years ago, he was positioned as the “Ugly American” who could betray and destabilize the United States.