Lilly King of the United States celebrates after winning the women's 100-meter breastroke final of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Swimming events at Olympic Aquatics Stadium at Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She defeated Russia's Yulia Efimova, right, whom King said shouldn't have been competing because of her "drug cheating." (DAVE HUNT/European Pressphoto Agency)
Update: Now Trump is taking things a step further, promising to be friends with Vladimir Putin. "During his administration, Trump will be friendly with Putin," Trump said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday morning. Trump previously mused about the benefits of warmer relations, but didn't go so far as to promise a more friendly posture.
Trump's comments also come, notably, the morning after the New York Times reported that a Russian cyberattack penetrated many more of the Democratic Party's emails than previously thought.
More Trump: "I think it would be great. Number one, I don't know Putin. I couldn't care. I don't know Putin. But I think it would be great if the United States actually got along with Russia. Which we don't. But on his watch, Crimea was taken. And, you know, nobody mentions that."
This week, America has a new folk hero. Unhappy about having to compete against a swimmer who has tested positive for doping, 19-year-old Lilly King was caught on camera waving her finger at Russian Yulia Efimova. Then she dissed her for "drug cheating." And then she beat her for a gold medal.
It is arguably the most memorable moment of these early Games. Partially that's because a young, brash American trash-talked and then backed it up against an alleged cheat who dominated her event. But a big part of it is also because the antagonist was from the perfect country, politically speaking: Russia.
It wasn't the Miracle on Ice, but the Cold War analogies have been flying fast. "Olympics Cold War: Anti-Doping Fever Grips Rio," declared NBC News on Wednesday. "The Cold War Is Back at the Olympics," wrote Slate in breaking down other potential U.S.-Russia clashes. The Post's own Cindy Boren called it "Lilly King’s cold war."
It's all a reminder of just how much rivalry — and arguably antipathy — there remains between the United States and Russia, two countries that since the Cold War have certainly had ups and downs. And it comes at a time in which one of the two candidates for the U.S. presidency continues to not really process that increasingly uneasy relationship and its political implications.
Four years ago, Republican nominee Mitt Romney called Russia the United States' top "geopolitical foe." In 2016, Donald Trump has taken an entirely different tack, saying nice things about Vladimir Putin, calling for warmer relations and even suggesting some very pro-Russia changes in policy.
It has become a running theme for Trump in recent weeks. “If we could get along with Russia, wouldn’t that be a good thing, instead of a bad thing?" he said last week. "Wouldn't it be nice if we actually got along, as an example, with Russia?” he said a couple days prior in Florida. And a couple days before that in North Carolina: "Wouldn't it be nice if we got together with Russia and knocked the hell out of ISIS?"
The comments are especially curious, given Democrats have alleged that Russia is trying to help elect Trump president. Trump has played down his admiration for Putin some, yes, but he has done almost nothing to really combat the idea that Russia might prefer him as president and that he would be good to the Russian government. Trump appeared to call for Russia to hack into Hillary Clinton's emails. He even suggested he might recognize Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula whose 2014 annexation by Russia the United States currently regards as an illegal occupation, as Russian territory. And despite that Russian incursion into Eastern Europe, he has suggested on multiple occasions that he might not defend NATO allies if they don't pony up more.
Then there are the comments about making friends with Russia. That sounds nice in theory, but it's pretty apparent that Americans are skeptical.
Pew data shows two-thirds of Americans regard Russia as either an "adversary" or a "serious problem." That number is very much on par with China, a country toward which Trump has taken a much more adversarial political stance.
Similarly, Gallup polling shows about two-thirds of Americans have an unfavorable view of Russia — the second-highest mark since the end of the Cold War.
Eighty-six percent of Americans regard the military power of Russia as either an "important" or "critical" threat to the vital interests of the United States. And 68 percent regard Russia as either "unfriendly" or an "enemy" of the United States. Twenty-one percent say it's friendly, and 5 percent call it an ally — numbers that are both down massively from the early 2000s.
The trajectory makes clear that Russia has fallen out of favor with Americans in recent years. And Democrats are smart to seize on that — along with the alleged Russian hacking of Democratic National Committee emails — to tie Trump to Russia, even if the evidence isn't quite conclusive that it is actively helping Trump. It has gotten help from Trump himself, certainly.
Americans are processing all of it. A CNN/ORC poll last week showed 48 percent thought the Russian government was indeed trying to influence the results of the U.S. election. Slighly fewer — 44 percent — said they didn't think so. A new Bloomberg Politics National Poll, meanwhile, shows 42 percent of Americans say they bothered "a lot" by Trump's praise for Putin, with 27 percent saying they're bothered "a little."
These numbers, combined with the reactions to King's triumph and Russia's status as a global bogeyman at these Olympic Games, demonstrate just how odd a strategy Trump is pursuing.