Michael A. McFaul

3 weeks ago | michaelmcfaul.substack.com | Michael A. McFaul

President Trump likes to claim that President Zelenskyy and Ukraine “have no cards” in their negotiations with Putin’s Russia. In Trump’s view, Putin has all the cards. Zelenskyy, therefore, has to capitulate to Putin, or so Trump thinks. Trump admires strong leaders. As early as 2015, Trump called Putin a “strong leader”—a pattern of admiration that has now persisted for years.

1 month ago | michaelmcfaul.substack.com | Michael A. McFaul

I spent last week in Beijing. My primary purpose there was to speak at a conference on China in the New Global Context, hosted by the Stanford Center at Peking University (read more about SCPKU here). But I stayed on several extra days to meet with other academics, entrepreneurs, and students to discuss US-China relations in the second Trump administration. My main takeaway: Trump has been good for CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping. That was not the assessment I expected to hear.

1 month ago | michaelmcfaul.substack.com | Michael A. McFaul

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1 month ago | michaelmcfaul.substack.com | Michael A. McFaul

Judging by the shockingly small budget request for the State Department for the next fiscal year, President Trump does not seem to believe in diplomacy. In a future essay, I will write about the illogical and imprudent cuts to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which has now been merged with the Department of State.

1 month ago | michaelmcfaul.substack.com | Michael A. McFaul

Dear Friends and Colleagues,In April, I had a final, big push to finish my upcoming book, Autocrats vs Democrats. Given Trump’s consequential executive orders and policies, I had to update several key sections. That’s the difficulty of writing a book on current events—things change faster than books get published. I also decided to change the book’s subtitle to better reflect our new realities.