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GOP gobsmacked by Trump’s warm embrace of Putin

By BENJAMIN ORESKES

Four years ago Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, stood before the American public and definitively stated that Russia was America’s biggest “geopolitical foe.”

This week, the far-and-away Republican poll leader Donald Trump gave Vladimir Putin a big, wet kiss, calling him “a strong leader” and saying it was a “great honor” to have Putin compliment him.

Trump’s warm embrace of the Russian president has shocked and alarmed the Republican establishment. There’s no secret about why Trump has psychologically tethered himself to Putin, whose bombast rivals that of the U.S. billionaire businessman and whose own strongman reputation reinforces Trump’s. But as the United States and its allies try to beat back Russia’s intrusions into Ukraine and Syria, Trump has ruffled countless feathers by cozying up to the Russian leader.

Romney’s former aides embody the GOP backlash, and on Friday morning, as Trump offered his latest flattery for Putin, they seethed.

Another former Romney adviser, who did not want to be named, said emails were flying around Friday morning among ex-staffers and friends after Trump on MSNBC heaped praise on Putin and hesitated to condemn the Russian leader for allegations the Kremlin has killed high-profile journalists critical of Putin, saying “our country does plenty of killing also.”