Donald Trump’s affection for oppressive and bloodthirsty dictators is now so well known that it may go unnoticed, and yet so bizarre that it is not appreciated or even believed.

Sometimes, however, a vivid memory surfaces. Such was the case this week, when stories from Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book, War, became public. In the book, the legendary reporter writes that in 2020, in the depths of the pandemic, Trump prioritized Vladimir Putin’s health over that of Americans, and sent Russian President Abbott COVID testing machines for his personal use, at a time when the Machines were difficult to obtain and desperately needed. (The Kremlin confirmed the story; Trump’s campaign vaguely denied it.) Meanwhile, Trump told people in the United States to simply test less. So much for “America First.”

Read: Why the President Praises Dictators

“Please don’t tell anyone you sent this to me,” Putin told Trump, according to Woodward.

“I don’t care,” Trump said. “Fine.”

“No, no,” said Putin. “I don’t want you to tell anyone because people will get mad at you, not at me. They don’t care about me.”

US relations with Russia have deteriorated since Trump left office, especially since Russia launched a brutal, abrasive invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But the former president has remained in contact with Putin, according to Woodward, who says an aide told him that “there have been multiple phone conversations between Trump and Putin, perhaps as many as seven in the period since Trump left the White House in 2021.”

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Trump’s public position on the war in Ukraine is that Putin would never have invaded on his watch because of his strength. Yet evidence is mounting that Trump is weak for any Putin overture — that Putin can make Trump do whatever he wants, and has done so time and time again. It happened when Trump sided with Putin over US intelligence agencies at the horrific Helsinki summit in 2018, it happened when he refused to bring up election interference during a 2019 phone call, and it happened when Putin got Trump to that he is transferring the test equipment. If Trump is so effective at pressuring Putin, and he remains in contact with him to this day, why doesn’t he use that influence to pressure Russia to withdraw and end the war ?

Putin is certainly not alone. Trump’s record shows a consistent pattern of affection for dictators, doing little or nothing for American benefit in return. Russia’s apparent moves to meddle in the 2016 election by hacking and leaking Democratic National Committee emails—just after Trump publicly called for just that—are a rare example of reciprocity, but not in favor of the nation. Trump was attracted to Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, even as Erdoğan gleefully defied Trump’s requests to stop an invasion of Syria and bought Russian weapons despite American objections. Trump also can’t say enough good things about North Korea’s Kim Jong Un (while not confusing his country with Iran), but failed to achieve nuclear disarmament despite a splashy summit with Kim.

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Some people still seem unwilling to believe that Trump admires these dictators, even though he keeps telling us exactly that. During his first term, his advisers tried to hide this affection, warning him in writing before calling on Putin after a corrupt election: “DO NOT CONGRATULATE.” (He did, of course.) When Putin warned Trump not to make public the sharing of COVID tests, he showed a sharper grasp of domestic political dynamics than the US president. Yet Trump continues to blurt out his love for authoritarians, including one very strange moment during last month’s presidential debate. Kamala Harris claimed that “world leaders are laughing at Donald Trump.”

“Let me tell you about the world leaders,” he replied. ‘Viktor Orbán, one of the most respected men, they call him a strong man. He’s a tough person. Smart. Prime Minister of Hungary. They said: Why is the whole world exploding? That was not the case three years ago. Why does it explode? He said, Because you need Trump back as president.”

Orbán is not universally respected; he is a pariah or at least an annoyance in most of the world. (To avoid any doubt that Trump understands who Orbán is, he helpfully noted the Hungarian’s reputation as a strongman.) Orbán’s support is not reassuring — my colleague Franklin Foer did some of his damage in 2019 to Hungary – and this moment suggests how easily Trump can be manipulated by flattery.

Many people also continue to believe that stories about Trump’s collusion and ties with Russia during the 2016 campaign were a hoax. This appears to be an unfortunate byproduct of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s failure to establish any criminal conspiracy. Yet evidence of improper relations with Russia was public long before Mueller completed his report. Not only was it not a hoax at the time, but Woodward’s reporting shows that Trump’s secret dealings with the Kremlin continue to this day.

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Commentators once seemed baffled and puzzled by Trump’s love of dictators, because it was so at odds with typical American views on the rule of law and respect for the Constitution and the country’s founders, not to mention the country’s best interests.

But there remains no reason to feel confused. Trump tried to overturn an election he lost; he denies that he lost – even though he definitely did – and he was comfortable with violence committed in an attempt to keep him in power. He has no regrets about this attack on American democracy. He has said he wants to become dictator on the first day of his second term, and while he claims it is a joke, he has also floated the idea of ​​suspending the Constitution. If he returns to office, his legal team has convinced the Supreme Court to grant him immunity for anything that could plausibly be construed as official conduct. Trump is attracted to dictators – he admires their power, their inability to ever lose – and he wants to be one.