Yuri Felshtinsky: Something Unprecedented In American History Has Happened

6.11.2026, 11:21
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A well-known writer predicts the end of the Trump and Vance era.

The Democratic Party scored a resounding victory in the election, perhaps the biggest in decades. Many Republicans blame the defeat personally on Donald Trump. Even Vice President J.D. Vance was among the critics and stated that the war in Iran was a failure for the U.S.

What developments might now unfold within the Republican Party? Will the “Make America Great Again” movement come to an end? The website Charter97.org posed these questions to renowned historian and columnist Yuri Felshtinsky:

— It’s very convenient for Republicans to blame Trump alone for the defeat in this election, but that’s hardly fair. The same voters who turned away from him two years later were the ones who voted for him. In other words, the voters—at least within a certain bloc—are the same, yet the results turned out to be completely different.
The problem lies not only with Trump himself, but also in the fact that, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear, the Republican Party has fully aligned itself with him. With the exception of a few politicians who lacked significant political clout, the party has not uttered a single word of criticism toward Trump over the past two years. Therefore, it is incorrect to assume that he alone is to blame for everything that has happened.

As a counterexample, one can cite the situation with Richard Nixon. When the Republican Party leadership realized that the president had committed an obvious violation of the law, it persuaded Nixon to resign. At the same time, it was clear that his departure would harm the party. And indeed, in the next presidential election, the Republicans lost, and the Democratic Party candidate won. But the Republicans of the Nixon era, faced with a choice between supporting a president who had broken the law and the interests of the country and the party, chose America and the party. The Republicans of the Trump era made a different choice. To say that the U.S. president simply broke the law is an understatement. He violated American values, principles, traditions, and, without a doubt, the law.

Starting on January 3, 2027, Congress will spend the next two years investigating the activities of Trump and his family. In essence, that will be his sole focus. This is the result of the Republican Party allowing Trump to do whatever he wanted with the country for just under two years. The Republicans understood that this was politically risky and that they might lose support in the upcoming elections. But they hoped to exploit the administrative resources at the president’s disposal and various manipulations of the American electoral system. They counted on Trump to help them.

Even after the war against Iran began—a war that was extremely unpopular in America from day one—the Republicans continued to support him. Americans genuinely did not understand why they needed this war. When it led to a sharp rise in gasoline and diesel prices on the global market and within the U.S. itself, Republicans began to realize that they might lose votes because of it. But no one foresaw that they would not merely lose votes, but would lose everything there was to lose and suffer a defeat unprecedented in American history. The Republican Party paid the price for having fully and unreservedly supported Trump and his every whim for two years. There was no opposition to Trump within the party on any issue.

— You mentioned Nixon. This sounds particularly relevant now that there are reports of the Democrats’ intention to initiate impeachment proceedings. Could such a situation repeat itself? If the process is initiated, could Republicans support the Democrats’ proposal to impeach Trump?

— First, let’s recall what impeachment means in the U.S. Charges under this procedure are brought by the House of Representatives by a simple majority vote. I think this will almost certainly happen. The Democrats have such a commanding majority that even if some of their members of Congress do not support impeachment, there will still be enough votes.
But to remove the president from office, a two-thirds majority in the Senate is required. I don’t think the Democrats will be able to muster those votes. They have a solid majority for all other legislative activity in Congress, but a significant number of Republicans will most likely not support the idea of impeaching Trump.

— But if Trump is removed from office, the vice president—who is also a Republican—will take over as president. Couldn’t that scenario actually benefit the Republican Party?

— As I’ve already said, over the next two years, Congress will be dealing with corruption cases involving Trump and his family and investigating their activities. If we look at the historical precedent of Nixon, he resigned on his own, without waiting for the impeachment process to be completed. Nevertheless, this did not help the Republican Party, and it lost the next election.

Perhaps Vance himself would prefer that Trump resign as a result of impeachment or be forced to leave the White House. In that case, Vance would have served as U.S. president for a while. But I don’t think that would have helped him much in the election. Impeachment is such a disgraceful event in American political history that the Republican Party is unlikely to be able to shake off this stigma by 2028, when the next presidential campaign begins.

Let’s be frank: Vance’s only notable disagreement with Trump was the war in Iran. And even there, it amounted to nothing more than mild opposition in his public statements. Vance did not support the war and spoke out against it, but this had no practical consequences. Aside from the Iran issue, Vance cannot cite a single argument to show that he was against Trump. In every other respect, he remained one of the president’s most vocal supporters and allies.

Many discussed the possibility of a Republican defeat in the November 3 election due to the war in Iran and Trump’s declining popularity. But no one anticipated a rout of this magnitude. The defeat is so severe that the Republican Party will be licking its wounds for the next two years and is unlikely to recover in time. Even if the Democrats start making mistakes and lose some of their popularity, in the next election we will most likely see neither Vance as the Republican nominee nor—and this is very important—anyone from the Trump clan. That was the serious threat. The Trump family has amassed billions of dollars. That money could have been used to finance any presidential campaign.

If the defeat on November 3 had not been a landslide—if the Republicans, for example, had lost only the House of Representatives but retained control of the Senate, then in 2028 we would most likely have seen one of Trump’s children run for president. For Trump, this would have been the only way to preserve his assets and shield them from a potential investigation. I don’t think he would have counted on leniency from Vance in this matter. Trump might have trusted one of his children, especially since we’re talking about the family’s shared wealth. In a different scenario, he would undoubtedly have tried to field one of his children as a presidential candidate in 2028. But after the crushing defeat and given the toxicity of the Trump name within the Republican Party, his children will most likely take a back seat and not participate in a presidential campaign.

— What impact will a Democratic victory have on our region, specifically on Belarus and Ukraine?

— Purely theoretically, one could assume that after January 3, 2027, Congress will try to reinstate sanctions against Russia and Belarus. As we know, Trump essentially lifted sanctions against both countries. I think Congress will pass laws requiring the reinstatement of sanctions against Russia and Belarus.

I am absolutely convinced that Trump will veto such a bill. The U.S. president has the right to veto laws passed by Congress with which he disagrees. Overriding a veto requires a two-thirds majority in both chambers. The Democrats may have such a majority in the House of Representatives, but they certainly do not have it in the Senate.
Furthermore, it is not clear that the Republican Party will begin to support Democratic initiatives even after its defeat. There is also the Supreme Court, which will hear disputes surrounding these decisions and define the limits of the president’s powers. Trump has more supporters on the Supreme Court than the Democrats do. Although, who knows—perhaps after this election, the justices, realizing how little public support the president has, will stop ruling in his favor on virtually every issue. So far, the Supreme Court has ruled in Trump’s favor in most cases involving him.

Putin understands very well that the alliance with the United States will end on January 20, 2029. He also understands that after January 3, 2027, the activities of Steve Whitecoff and Jared Kushner regarding the Ukrainian issue—and their attempts to force Ukraine to capitulate— will likely be severely curtailed by congressional investigations. Congress will undoubtedly begin investigating the activities of Kushner and Whitcoff—and not just the financial aspects of those activities. During the first two years of Trump’s presidency, they made enormous amounts of money thanks to their connections with him. Trump’s presidency is a business venture. This is a very important point. The entire Trump family and his inner circle are involved in it. Whitcoff is one of them.

Starting January 3, 2027, all of these activities will come under intense scrutiny. Therefore, I think Whitcoff and Kushner will stop dealing with foreign policy issues. Their work has less to do with politics than with making money off politics and selling real estate—for example, a property called “Ukraine” that doesn’t even belong to them. We’ll see changes here.

Democrats will head all the committees investigating the government’s activities. Therefore, this path will be blocked for Whitcoff, Kushner, and Trump himself. But this will only happen after January 3, 2027. On the contrary, Trump, Kushner, and Whitcoff will actively use the remaining two months to finalize the plan to sell Ukraine to Putin. On the one hand, we will see an intensification of Russian attacks on Ukraine and the most powerful airstrikes possible. The calculation will be that Ukraine will become frightened during these two months, give in, and capitulate. On the other hand, we will see significant activity on the part of Trump, Kushner, and Whitcoff aimed at finalizing the deal to sell Ukraine to Putin. In two months, all of this could come to a complete halt.

Unfortunately, a Democratic victory does not mean that Congress will be able to force Trump to resume arms deliveries to Ukraine. He will sabotage them in every possible way. If the U.S. resumes deliveries, the situation on the ground and in the air will change significantly—not in Putin’s favor. Trump has never been interested in this, and he isn’t interested now either. His mission remains to destroy global democracy. In this sense, Putin is an indispensable ally for him, for whom crushing Ukraine is the top priority.

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