Reagan-era Republicans aghast as Trump turns Russia policy on its head

Republicans who served under President Ronald Reagan during the cold war have condemned Donald Trump's move to soften relations with Russia and undermine the 80-year-old transatlantic alliance.

- David Smith

European leaders were left reeling last week when the US vice-president, JD Vance, told the Munich Security Conference that the greatest danger facing Europe was "the threat from within" and the "retreat from fundamental values".

Fears are also growing that a meeting of top US and Russian diplomats in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, with no seat at the table for Ukrainian or European officials, has paved the way for a capitulation to Moscow.

"It makes me sick what's going on right now," said Ken Adelman, a former US ambassador to the UN. "The Trump administration has no regard for the 80 years of Atlantic cooperation and the sovereignty of Ukraine."

Adelman served as arms control director for Reagan, accompanying him on three superpower summits with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. He reflected: "We're in the opposite position right now because Ronald Reagan said: 'Tear down this wall, Mr Gorbachev,' and Trump is saying: 'You can do whatever the hell you want to, Mr Putin.'

"[Reagan] believed that you should support friends and stand up to enemies. It seems like the Trump administration is for opposing friends and supporting enemies."

Hardline anti-communism was the Republican brand for years, culminating in the collapse of the Soviet Union and end of the cold war. The US continues to have tens of thousands of troops stationed across mostly western Europe, long seen as a guarantee of democratic stability.

But ever since Trump launched his first run for president in 2015, he has embraced nationalist-populism and been strikingly reluctant to condemn the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Much of the rest of the party has fallen in line, while Reaganite hawks such as Mike Pence, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger have been purged.