‘GIFT AFTER GIFT’

Why Putin Thinks Trump Is ‘F***ing Awesome’: Author

The presidents of China and Russia have been handed a gift in the form of the Trump administration, David Litt argues.

Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jingping are likely looking at the state of the U.S. under the second Trump administration and thinking, “This is so f---ing awesome.”

Author David Litt told host Joanna Coles on the latest episode of The Daily Beast Podcast that the U.S is spiraling out of control, and Trump’s actions are causing so much chaos across the U.S.—and the world—that he’s providing a golden opportunity for other powerful leaders.

“I don’t know the Chinese or Russian words for, ‘This is so f---ing awesome,’ but that’s what I imagine they are thinking,” Litt said in reference to Russia’s President Putin and China’s Xi.

“Because what we’re seeing more than anything else is that President Trump has total control of his party and so little control over the rest of American policy. Everything is feeling more and more out of control at home and around the world.”

China and Russia are in the perfect position to argue, “if you’re going to do autocracy, go with the people who can do it right,” Litt explained.

“China is going to other countries essentially and saying, ‘If the United States doesn’t provide you anything in terms of respecting human rights, you know, democracy, self-determination, if we’re all just equal bullies, you might as well go with China. We’ll give you a better deal because we don’t have to get stuff through Congress because we’re sort of unashamedly authoritarian. So take our deal.’”

Litt argued the U.S. used to be able to push back on China’s attempts at expanding their influence and say that while that may seem better in the short term, in the long term, “Do you really want to be under China’s thumb?”

“Now we’re basically saying, you want to be under the thumb of an incompetent authoritarian or a competent authoritarian, and people choose the competent one. So the last six months have just been gift after gift after gift to China at a moment when even a really smart, competent president would have struggled to figure out that relationship and how we compete,” Litt told Coles. ”And sadly, we do not have that president even remotely at the moment.”

Litt, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, recently published his new memoir, It’s Only Drowning, about connecting with his Joe-Rogan listening, Trump-voting brother-in-law through surfing. He spoke to Coles about the fact that Democrats have failed to connect with a large swathe of the population.

His brother-in-law, Litt explained, isn’t so much a Trump fan as he is of Joe Rogan, which is “a very specific part of the Trump coalition. The Joe Rogan fans, until recently, were not actually really part of MAGA at all. They were third party people. They didn’t vote.”

Trump supporters, however, have a “guiding principle” that “whatever Trump says goes,” Litt added.

Litt, who considers himself an appreciator but not necessarily a fan of Joe Rogan, worries that the Kamala Harris campaign’s misstep regarding the podcaster—offering him only an hour of the then vice president’s time, when Rogan is known for lengthy interviews of three hours or more—suggests that the Democrats are “not as plugged into this world, [they] don’t speak the language.”

“And when you don’t speak that language, when you don’t speak that dialect, people don’t want to listen to what you have to say, even if it was really helpful,” he continues.

The benefit of engaging with people like Rogan—the largest podcaster in the world—as well as others in his orbit like Andrew Schulz or Theo Von, is meeting people where they are and giving Democrats the right to explain their platform in their own terms. ”It turns out if you’re not hearing from us, you’re hearing about us from someone else. And they’re not going to be very flattering about it,” Litt argued.

Refusing to engage isn’t an option at this point, he explained, as, “You can’t de-platform what is essentially at this point the internet and social media and phones.”

”De-platforming is not possible. It doesn’t mean you need to go everywhere, but it means your inclination should be to go everywhere and only as a last resort you say no. Because it’s not a betrayal of your values to show up.”

New episodes of The Daily Beast Podcast are released every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Follow our new feed on your favorite podcast platform at beast.pub/dailybeastpod and subscribe on YouTube to watch full episodes.

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Catherine BourisReporter

The Daily Beast Podcast

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