“Sick”: GOP Senator’s Harsh Takedown of Trump Hints at a Darker Story

After President Trump and JD Vance ambushed Ukrainian President Zelenskiy in the Oval Office, one GOP senator stepped up. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska decried Trump not just for his appalling treatment of Zelenskiy, but also for realigning the United States with the rising forces of Putinism around the world. Meanwhile, European leaders are set to negotiate a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire, which could pressure Trump-Vance to show what they really want the war’s outcome to look like. We talked to Yale political scientist Lauren Young, who pinpoints the message Trump-Vance were sending to the global far right—and explains what Murkowski’s lonely status in the GOP says about the collapse of a center-right bulwark in the U.S. against rising authoritarianism. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.