Russia deal, execution plans and deportations tell a defining tale about Trump and power

By Stephen Collinson, CNN

(CNN) — Donald Trump is trying to make America more like him.

But voters will soon get to deliver a verdict on the president’s efforts to redefine how the government he leads wields power at home and abroad.

Three flashpoints illustrate how his coercive and transactional instincts are changing the character of the country and how the rest of the world sees us.

Ever since World War II, America has nurtured democracy. But by allowing Russia to supply markets with diesel, Trump will reward a ruthless authoritarian, President Vladimir Putin, who is killing scores of Ukrainian civilians as he aims to crush their independence.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream the death by firing squad of the Fort Hood mass shooter meanwhile risks putting the United States in the category of Iran, the Taliban and Hamas in carrying out public executions.

And the shooting by federal agents in New York last week of a citizen of the Dominican Republic while a 5-year-old was in the car was the government’s latest flex of violent force in public in an intensifying deportation crackdown.

Each event sparked a political backlash, and each raises questions about the unconstrained use of presidential authority and how eroded legal and behavioral standards will ultimately sit with the national conscience.

But each also directly flows from the personality of a president who made no secret of his intentions when he was twice chosen by voters in democratic elections and who represents the views of tens of millions of citizens.

The midterm elections are being dominated by high prices for food and housing, a backlash against AI data centers, and public fury over the Iran war.

But the election also marks 10 years since Trump first won power, and it will serve indirectly as an accounting of his attempts to define 21st century national greatness through a prism of his truculent and idiosyncratic values.

Growing concerns about the Russia diesel deal, a potentially livestreamed execution and Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity may hint at Trump’s eroded political clout nearly halfway through his second term.

And the shift of the electoral calendar to a presidential cycle in a few weeks will begin a debate on whether Trump’s redefinition of American exceptionalism is an aberration or whether it will linger in his image when he’s left office.

A startling deal with Russia

Trump’s deal with Putin to send diesel onto international markets is a blunt demonstration of “America First” in action and the US president’s tendency to use foreign policy to promote his political goals.

The move shatters the international sanctions regime that battered Russia’s economy after the invasion of Ukraine; delivers a huge propaganda victory to Putin; and reflects the US president’s pattern of accommodating the Kremlin strongman.

It deals a new blow to the morale of Ukrainian civilians, who are under escalating Russian attacks, including at least 33 who died when two public buses were targeted.

It opens a huge rift with NATO allies at a moment when Moscow is accused of a campaign of sabotage, harassment and airspace violations in Europe. The Dutch defense minister last week branded Russia “our enemy.”

And Trump’s demand Saturday for Ukraine to replace President Volodymyr Zelensky — a key Moscow condition — will renew fears that he’s siding with Kremlin war aims. Those fears were also recently exacerbated by Trump’s failure to license Kyiv to produce Patriot missiles.

But there is a logical explanation for Trump’s decision.

He’s in a political and economic bind because the cost of diesel has hit record levels, hammering US agriculture and raising food prices. Most of this is because of his war in Iran, and it is unclear whether the deal will lower prices quickly. But he had a burning domestic political imperative to do more, whatever the expense.

“It’s another example of our president thinking out of the box,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer told ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday. Emmer added: “Our president is trying to find every answer possible to help the American people.”

But former Vice President Mike Pence balked at easing the economic vise on Russia. “America should not be throwing a lifeline to Putin’s war machine. Now is the time to stand strong against Russian aggression as we did during the first Trump administration,” Pence wrote in a post on X.

Trump rejects the kind of hawkish, traditional Republicanism that Pence represents. The president has a narrower definition of national and personal interest: On the same day he delivered a huge win for Putin, an accused war criminal, and again warned he may destroy Iran, Trump slammed his latest Nobel Peace Prize snub as “an embarrassment” and “disgraceful.”

What Hegseth thinks people ‘need to understand’

Nidal Hasan is a US Army major convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder for targeting soldiers headed to Afghanistan. The question is not whether his victims deserve justice following a judicial process. It’s whether staging a public execution would infringe constitutional protections; whether it is consistent with America’s modern values; and if it would hand Hasan the martyrdom he sought.

Hegseth explained last week that the execution would be public because “people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.” The defense secretary favors the performative use of force and is contemptuous toward those who fear it violates American principles. He has, for example, defended US strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific that have killed at least 221 people and that critics call unconstitutional extrajudicial assassinations.

A backlash could still scupper the livestream execution plan. Trump said over the weekend that he will decide whether it will happen.

But opponents worry that going ahead will stain America’s moral reputation and reward extremist groups with a propaganda triumph.

“What is he mimicking, ISIS executions?” Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday. “I understand that in this country we have the death penalty, but public executions is medieval.”

Some Republicans are also concerned. “I absolutely support the sentence of death, but livestreaming executions is what jihadists do. America is better than that,” said Georgia Rep. Austin Scott. And Utah Sen. John Curtis warned on X, “A civilization erodes when it cultivates an appetite for executions as a form of entertainment.”

‘He was a thug’

The public use of military-style force in law enforcement and a narrative of governmental toughness also underpins the deportation crackdown. It has come with grave consequences, including the deaths of protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota.

In the latest controversy, Oscar Belgal, 28, from the Dominican Republic, suffered a superficial wound to the neck when he was shot by immigration agents in the Bronx last week. His child was not physically injured. Federal authorities said officers believed that their lives were in danger. The injured man had previously pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny and received five years of probation, according to court records.

Critics see such confrontations as unacceptable examples of untamed federal government power. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the officers involved were not wearing uniforms and that ICE agents are “making the city terrified.”

But Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” on Sunday that Belgal was to blame. “The truth is this guy was an awful human being. He was a thug. He was a gangbanger,” Mullin said. He placed the blame on Belgal for putting his child at risk: “The last thing I would have done is put my son or one of my kids in danger.”

Mullin’s comments are consistent with the views of many Americans who favor stronger immigration enforcement and who responded to Trump’s searing promises to launch law and order crackdowns in his campaigns.

Yet while a majority wanted more action on the border after the Biden administration’s neglect, there are signs the aggressive tactics are a political liability. In a Pew Research poll in May, 52% said the administration was doing “too much” on deportations. Still, only 19% of Republicans thought so, underscoring that confrontations might please GOP midterm base voters.

An existential question voters must answer

American history is scarred by violence and stifled justice: lynchings; the crushing of civil rights protests; internments in wartime; and foreign wars that killed thousands of innocent civilians. So Trump’s muscularity is far from the first time that government power has challenged traditional perceptions of US values.

Yet few modern presidents have been as willing to test American ideas about limited government power, the restrained use of force, international alliances and American global leadership.

Ultimately, citizens must decide at the ballot box if this is what they want.

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