Trump endorses Putin’s intervention in Syria

During Tuesday night's Republican debate, Donald Trump took a pretty novel position for a Republican — he cheered Vladimir Putin's military intervention in Syria, weirdly citing his experience meeting the Russian leader in a TV green room:

As far as Syria, I like if Putin wants to go in, and I got to know him very well because we were both on "60 Minutes," we were stable mates, we did well that night. You know that. If Putin wants to knock the hell out of ISIS, I’m all for it 100 percent and I can’t understand how anybody would be against that.

Jeb Bush then attempted to interject, saying, "They're not doing that," but Trump just rolled right over him:

BUSH: They’re not doing that.

TRUMP: Hold it. They blew up — wait a minute. They blew up a Russian airplane, he cannot be in love with these people. He‘s going in and we can go in and everybody should go in.

Trump, a longtime Putin fan, is totally wrong here. Russia isn't really paying very much attention to ISIS: Its principal objective is propping up Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's regime, which is more threatened by rebels than by ISIS. According to State Department data, 90 percent of Russian airstrikes have targeted other Syrian rebel groups. This map, from the invaluable Institute for the Study of War, shows that Russian bombs are mostly hitting rebel-held territory (in tan) and barely hitting ISIS territory at all:

(Institute for the Study of War)

So, yeah: Trump is flatly wrong. Putin isn't bombing ISIS.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via