‘Mask has COME OFF fully': Trump NOT hiding embrace of Putin anymore

I thibk I can see the MAGA claim, although hyperbolic campaign sloganeering.

Vladimir Putin was a loyal Communist when a KGB officer, but he and his regime now are hard-line Right.

So hard-line Republicans admiring Putin and calling anyone even slightly Left of them "Communist" has a sort of logic even though desperately exaggerrated.

The real irony is President Trump cosying up to North Korea and China as well as Russia while attacking Iran; though those four countries exist in an unlikely alliance despite their so utterly opposing ideologies, and all four utterly opposed to democracy.

Essentially, all four see Europe and the USA as a common enemy, so a US President flattering and supporting at least some of them is a very welcome gift.

Notably the Russo-Sino frontier across the R. Amur was the world's most heavily fortified when both countries were Communist. They did not trust each other. Now, their links even extend to railways linking China's network to the Trans-Siberian Railway.