„If I were in Marco Rubio’s shoes, a politician who knows what a dictatorship means, I would be ashamed,” says political scientist Vladimir Tismăneanu, in a dialogue with spotmedia.ro.
He notes Donald Trump’s preference for tyrants and warns that Elon Musk’s endorsement of Călin Georgescu, a key figure in the new American administration, is extremely dangerous.
What is happening in and with the United States? Are we facing the installation of a new power paradigm? In what way?
It is an attempt to establish a regime of historical urgency, in fact, a utopian authoritarianism with radical ambitions.
Donald Trump's desire for revenge merges with the utopia of the new reactionary movement. I wrote back in October 2024 about the rise of the New Obscurantism. The concept has been circulating, for example, in the contributions of journalist Anne Applebaum. I would add Francis Fukuyama's idea of the New American Imperialism.
One of the key figures in the Trump administration, Elon Musk, has openly expressed support for Călin Georgescu, a candidate with neo-legionary sympathies, pro-Russian, isolationist. What does this endorsement mean?
It means a lot and is extremely dangerous.
The entire concept of Romania's national interest is based on belonging to NATO and the EU. This stems from the outcomes of the end of the Cold War. The victory of the so-called legionnaire Georgescu would mean a cataclysmic shake-up of the entire framework of imperfect but real democracy in Romania.
Elon Musk posted a message of admiration for Russian Minister Lavrov, while President Trump echoes Putin's arguments against Ukraine and wants elections in Kiev. Is the American administration more empathetic towards autocrats than liberals, or is it actually a game, a form of negotiation?
Donald Trump has never hidden his sympathy for autocrats.
He is, to borrow Mark Lilla's concept, a tyrant-lover, he likes tyrants. Moreover, he clearly has a monarchical instinct.
Everything is judged based on his power, which must be absolute. I wonder how the meeting with the British Prime Minister will unfold. Trump is impervious to democratic obligations.
The US has decided on direct peace negotiations with Russia, without Ukraine and Europe at the table. Can Europe counterbalance and ensure that Ukraine is not practically ceded or not imposed a painful peace?
Trump's peace means Putin's victory. Just two, maybe three days ago, I would have hesitated to be so categorical.
But a betrayal took place in Riyadh. Trump's people were not authorized to negotiate the future of Ukraine in the absence and without real consultation with Ukraine. It was, in fact, a dictate. Like the one in Munich in September 1938.
If I were in Marco Rubio's shoes, a politician who knows what a dictatorship means, I would be ashamed. The world is going through a great geopolitical crisis, but also a moral one these days and weeks. Putinophile collaborators are rubbing their hands with glee. What remains for us? Lucidity and responsibility.
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Vladimir Tismăneanu is a political scientist, professor of political science at the University of Maryland since 1990. He studied sociology and obtained his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Bucharest in 1980 with a thesis on the critical theory of the Frankfurt School. He left Romania in September 1981 and lived for a time in Paris and Caracas.
Since September 1982, he has lived in the United States. Between 1982 and 1990, he was a researcher at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. From 1985 to 1990, he taught political science at the University of Pennsylvania. In the period from March to December 2006, he was the president of the Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania (CPADCR). In 2007, he received the Distinguished International Service Award from the University of Maryland, and the American Political Science Association awarded him a certificate for exceptional merits in teaching political science.
He has published, among others: "Reinventing Politics. Eastern Europe from Stalin to Havel" (Free Press, 1992 and 1993; Polirom, 1997 and 2007); "The Phantom of Salvation. Democracy, nationalism, and myth in post-communist Europe" (Princeton University Press, 1998 and 2009; Polirom, 1999); "Stalinism for Eternity. A political history of Romanian communism" (University of California Press, 2003; Polirom, 2005; in 2004, the Barbara Jelavich Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, for outstanding work in the history of Eastern and Central Europe); "The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century" (University of California Press, 2012).