Anne Applebaum

And as I said, I mean, the main problem in the United States is just the lack of awareness.

I mean,

We're so used to our system running on autopilot, you know, assuming that people more or less, most people obey the law and more or less, you know, things work.

And once that once the kind of critical mass is reached and that's no longer true, then it's going to be very hard to fix.

I mean, that's an interesting point.

I mean, it depends what

what it looks like.

You know, if it looks exactly like it does now, you know, maybe there wouldn't be an impact.

But if there has been a series of failed Trump peace efforts that were transparently grifting, that they weren't really about peace,

or if there has been some kind of Trump-Russia, Trump-Putin agreement to start doing business over the heads of the Ukrainians and the Europeans, I don't think Americans will find that attractive.

Maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe people won't care.

You know, foreign policy is far away.

Ukraine is pretty remote to a lot of people.

But I still think, and this is something I know because I've seen surveys about this, Americans still like to think about their country being a good country.

You know, we like to think of ourselves being a positive force in the world.

I mean, reasonable people can disagree about what that means, you know, and maybe not everyone's definition of good is the same.

But they don't like the idea that the main, you know, in the big issues and in the big arenas, that the main motivation of the United States of America is the wealth of a few people who are close to the president.

I just don't think Americans are going to like that.

And I don't know that it would be the main issue in the midterms, but I think it would be something that would certainly affect people's perception of Trump and maybe of the Republican Party.