John J. Mearsheimer

Absolutely.

You're correct.

I mean, we could have easily lived with the Russians.

Yes.

Putin wanted to have good relations with us.

He wanted to join NATO.

Yeah.

It's... The idea that Putin...

was missing the Soviet Union to the point that he wanted to recreate the Soviet Union and the Soviet Empire in East Europe bears no resemblance to what is in the historical record.

It's just crazy.

And by the way, just to go back to Trump, I think Trump's instincts on both China and Russia, starting with his first term and even in his second term, in the beginning, his instincts were correct in both cases.

It was time to abandon engagement, contain China.

And with regard to Russia, it was time to have good relations with Russia, to end the war in Ukraine.

This is in his second term because the war didn't take place in his first term.

So I think Trump's instincts were good.

But

Again, Trump's problem is that when it comes to diplomacy, he has the Midas touch in reverse.

And the end result is that he's made a hash of things with the Russians.

I don't know for sure.

It just seems to me that they have convinced themselves that Putin is the second coming of Adolf Hitler.