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President Trump’s souring on Russian President Vladimir Putin — saying he has “gone absolutely CRAZY” and is “playing with fire” — is raising questions about whether Trump's Ukraine-skeptical MAGA base will shift along with him.

The bitter tension in the GOP over how the U.S. should respond to Russia’s war against Ukraine has been a defining dynamic of the Trump era, and those with anti-interventionist sensibilities have long thought Trump’s instincts would lead him to pull back.

But now that peace talks Trump has tried to broker between Moscow and Kyiv have faltered — with Trump most recently decrying Putin’s strikes on Ukraine over the weekend — those hoping for a more aggressive stance toward Russia are cheering what they see as an apparent shift.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is signaling he's ready to go with a bill imposing harsh sanctions on Russia that has more than 80 co-sponsors. Given Moscow's reticence over peace talks, momentum seems to be growing for taking a more aggressive posture backing sanctions.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board called for a Senate GOP revolt on sanctions, but that might not even be necessary: Trump said on Sunday he would “absolutely” consider the move.

That shift marks a “new peak of disappointment” for retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor — a favorite analyst of Tucker Carlson who had a brief stint as a Pentagon advisor in the first Trump administration. Macgregor, a staunch anti-interventionist, advocates for dropping Russian sanctions completely rather than imposing more, and argues the U.S. national strategic interests do not conflict with Russia’s.

“I think people are beginning to wonder what’s really going on because of the contradictions of his statements,” Macgregor told me in an interview, referring to Trump. He added: “It looks like President Trump has done a 180-degree turn. He's moved from a position that was viewed as reasonable with potential goodness for everyone concerned, to a position that is indistinguishable from Lindsey Graham.”

But the biggest Ukraine critics on Capitol Hill aren’t expressing that same type of disappointment with Trump as they respond to his frustration with Putin. Trump, after all, kept up with his criticism of Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky even as he criticized Putin, saying the Ukrainian leader “is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does” and that “everything out of his mouth causes problems.”

Asked about Trump’s description of Putin as “crazy” and the prospect of more sanctions on Russia, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — one of Zelensky’s most vocal critics in Congress — echoed Trump’s “both sides” message, referencing Russia’s assertions that Ukrainian drones targeted Putin’s helicopter.

“Ukraine just launched dozens of drones at Putin’s helicopter, trying to assassinate him, and Russia continues to attack Ukraine. Both sides are at war with one another, and I personally think that is crazy,” Greene told me in a statement.........

© The Hill