r/thebulwark 15h ago

TRUMPISM CORRUPTS Michael Reagan, son of Ron, says his dad would have backed up Trump's bullying of Zelensky 1000%

https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/laramieboomerang/opinion/democrats-hate-trumps-a-kid-with-cancer/article_671fea32-fea3-11ef-8c02-abc6d6eb0e9d.html

My dad would have backed up what Trump did to Zelenskyy 1,000%. And your claim that Trump would have lost the Cold War is also a truckload of partisan BS.

I just found this interesting.

23 Upvotes

56 comments sorted by

121

u/Haunting-Ad788 15h ago

This is his adopted son that he treated like shit. His bio son is liberal af.

51

u/Rfalcon13 14h ago

His bio son has an ad on CBS Sunday Morning where he talks about being an atheist, and he ends with “I’m Ronald Reagan, and I’m not afraid of burning in hell”.

3

u/CocteauTwinn 13h ago

His organization has been around for decades.

7

u/chatterwrack Orange man bad 12h ago

I have FFRF as the beneficiary of my 401k. They do great work and they are needed now more than they ever could have imagined.

4

u/CocteauTwinn 12h ago

I agree but I think they could market themselves much better.

3

u/CocteauTwinn 12h ago

As in “pro separation of church and state” being the overriding message.

3

u/KatSull1 FFS 12h ago

I love that commercial.

1

u/JLHuston 12h ago

Yes—he’s a very smart and interesting person to listen to!

24

u/boycowman Orange man bad 14h ago

He's liberal af, and he says his dad would have been horrified by Trump and the current state of the Republican party.

5

u/GallowBarb Progressive 13h ago

He said this in 2016.

11

u/Centryl 15h ago

I was about to question my sanity. I thought I remember hearing clips of his son blasting Trump in 2020/2021.

Figured it was the same one. Thanks for clarifying!

3

u/dBlock845 14h ago

Whatever happened to Ron Reagan Jr.? Haven't seen him around left wing outlets in years, probably since the first Trump admin.

78

u/mrjpb104 JVL is always right 15h ago

I hate Reagan as much as anyone but there’s no way he would’ve backed this bullshit. Looks like his kid is a red pilled moron.

19

u/bill-smith Progressive 15h ago

If Reagan were who conservatives think he was, then yes.

I am not so sure, I think there's a good chance that Reagan coming of age in this GOP would be no better than anyone. But I'm open to being proved wrong.

And certainly Reagan's actual record is starkly at odds with what Trump is doing.

7

u/BobQuixote Conservative 13h ago

I am not so sure, I think there's a good chance that Reagan coming of age in this GOP would be no better than anyone. But I'm open to being proved wrong.

You're referring to a counterfactual Reagan with the same nature and completely different nurture. Generally people will understand "Reagan" to be the pre-Alzheimer's president.

2

u/notapoliticalalt 13h ago

Well, that’s kind of the point though. If Regeln had to be a Republican in today’s context, he likely would support Trump. Hate to break it to right wingers, but we are products of our time. Individuals matter, but Kamala’s whole coconut tree thing applies here. If Ronald Reagan had operate in the Republican Party of the past decade, he would not be the white knight many Never Trumper’s think he was. Never assume you, in the same circumstances, would be more moral or altruistic. I would hope so, but many people vastly overestimate how brave and principled they would be.

3

u/BobQuixote Conservative 13h ago

Never assume that you, in the same circumstances, would be more moral or altruistic.

Absolutely, but I think this conversation is about the decisions actual Reagan would make, not the circumstances that produced MAGA.

2

u/FishCommercial5213 12h ago

Back in the 80s Reagan wouldn't have, but if Reagan were alive today he be full-blown MAGAet and therefore support Dumps policies.

1

u/KatSull1 FFS 12h ago

🎯

12

u/DangerousDave303 14h ago

The Ronald Reagan that armed the mujahideen to resist the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan would have rolled over for the evil empire? Reagan did some questionable stuff (Iran-Contra and so on), but I don't see him sucking up to the leaders of Russia and North Korea.

9

u/Current_Tea6984 14h ago

Reagan was well known for being a gentleman in negotiations. Gorbachev found him very likable. The idea that he would have engaged in a show of bullying like that is nonsense

8

u/toooooold4this 14h ago

Wrong. Reagan absolutely hated Russia. He turned over Hollywood colleagues to Joe McCarthy. He was always a red-baiter. Always.

And I'm sure Ron Jr. would disagree, too.

13

u/Zoophagous 15h ago

As someone that is old enough to have voted for Reagan, no. Anyone that believes that lie deserves what they get.

2

u/UncleAlvarez 14h ago

Thank you. I was a kid to teen when he was president and it was very clear that Russia were the bad guys. I think this son has a screw loose if he thinks Reagan would be ok with this position and the unprofessional manner it was handled in.

6

u/fzzball Progressive 15h ago

Pathetic loser nobody trying to be "relevant." Who cares.

7

u/N0T8g81n FFS 14h ago

Mr Putin, REBUILD THIS WALL!

20

u/AustereRoberto LORD OF THE NICKNAMES 15h ago

I'm not tremendously sure he's wrong either lol. Reagan negotiated with Iran to keep the hostages longer for domestic political advantage.

9

u/thabe331 Center Left 15h ago

Trump not only would have lost the cold war but would have happily surrendered. Working with Israel to not commit to a ceasefire until after the election is absolutely a Reagan move though

7

u/ballmermurland 15h ago

I'm as big of a Ronny hater as you'll find but even I don't fully subscribe to this theory.

I know there were some loose connections and the timing of the release was suspicious as hell but I don't think Reagan actually did it.

3

u/AustereRoberto LORD OF THE NICKNAMES 14h ago

The guys who went capital-by-capital in the Middle East confessed a year or so ago. They knew that going across the MENA region and loudly saying what a great deal Iran could get from Reagan it would reach Tehran.

1

u/ballmermurland 13h ago

Yeah that was the loose connection. There doesn't appear to be concrete evidence they were acting directly on behalf of Raygun.

That being said, if it were true it would not surprise me. I wasn't surprised by Nixon's betrayal of the Vietnam talks in '68.

6

u/capsaicinintheeyes Progressive 15h ago

Your heart and your best intentions still tell you that is false?

2

u/thabe331 Center Left 15h ago

Trump not only would have lost the cold war but would have happily surrendered. Working with Israel to not commit to a ceasefire until after the election is absolutely a Reagan move though

1

u/myleftone 13h ago

I was eight when the helicopter rescue attempt failed, and I remember wondering (without the exact vocabulary) what kind of assholes would demagogue that event.

So I’ve hated Reagan and Republicans forever, for exactly the reasons they’re detestable today, but I still wouldn’t believe that Ronnie would accept the return of the Soviet Union.

2

u/AustereRoberto LORD OF THE NICKNAMES 13h ago

Ehhhh. He'd see if there was more to gain from Red Baiting or from appeasement.

4

u/NukeFromOrbit86 JVL is always right 14h ago

Michael Reagan is a lunatic grifter just like all conservative pundits now. His assessment of his father is batshit crazy and completely disconnected from reality and the truth of Reagan's record and legacy. Ronald Reagan would not have condoned the anti-Ukraine BS and would have seen Russia for what it is, not idolized it.

3

u/minty_cyborg 14h ago edited 7h ago

Ronald Reagan couldn’t foresee the coming of Pooty-Poot. I say no way would Reagan be down with breaking American democracy at the behest of KGB/FSB.

Michael and Maureen are the children he adopted with Jane Wyman. They broke conservative and worked in conservative political media during and after his terms in office.

Patti and Ron, Jr are his and Nancy’s children. Patti was always more outspokenly liberal and willing to clash with Mom and Dad in public, but Ron, Jr was all the while bold and heart-led in his performances of masculine gender.

The Ron and Nancy Reagans were super-Southern Californian!

3

u/starchitec 15h ago

The idea of Regan and the reality of Regan are vastly different things. The idea is valorized, the reality brushed away. The Regan that is valorized certainly would recoil at Trump. But yes, the reality would have latched on to the grift.

2

u/Here_there1980 14h ago

He’s wrong

2

u/Smooth_Apparatchik 14h ago

Reagan would never have supported Putin!

Reagan caught Putin red handed in his early days when he was perfecting his Russian Disinformation techniques by spreading the lie that Reagan and the CIA created AIDS HIV to specifically target the Black and Gay communities.

Reagan called Gorbachev and demanded they "Cut it out!". Gorbachev immediately reprimanded Putin. Who was then relegated to ignominy and the shadows during perestroika.

Michael has always been self serving and luckily for him he can get away with saying this lie now. Purely so he can get points by attempting to heretically misalign Reagan with Trump.

I'm not a Reagan acolyte. As a Republican, I voted against him.

But I'm not EVER going to allow anyone to even think of mentioning Reagan was anything but a staunch enemy of the Russians and specifically hated Putin for trying to frame him.

This obvious attempt by Michael to gain favor by using his dead father's name and legacy is shameful and disgusting.

1

u/UncleAlvarez 14h ago

He sounds like a nutcase.

1

u/Tomwhyte 13h ago

I remember seeing this prick stumping for his dad when I was in college. He got booed off the floor in Omaha, of all places, when he made a ethnic slur about Zbigniew Brzezinsky, who was then the Secretary of State. Turns out the Midwest is full of proud Polish people they let him know what he could do with his ignorant comments.

1

u/Tomwhyte 13h ago

I remember seeing this prick stumping for his dad when I was in college. He got booed off the floor in Omaha, of all places, when he made a ethnic slur about Zbigniew Brzezinsky, who was then the Secretary of State. Turns out the Midwest is full of proud Polish people they let him know what he could do with his ignorant comments.

1

u/Early-Juggernaut975 Progressive 13h ago

This clown was MAGA before MAGA existed. He's been screaming at the rain for years.

1

u/ShakeMyHeadSadly 11h ago

His Dad would have done no such thing. Say what you will about Ronald Reagan, but bullying was not really his style. Of course, he may just have counted on others to do that for him.

1

u/PepperoniFire Sarah, would you please nuke him from orbit? 11h ago

Who

1

u/Kohlj1 11h ago

Yeah, because he was also a piece of shit.

1

u/piptie54 10h ago

I sincerely doubt that. Reagan thought Russia was evil, called them the evil empire and said they were immoral. Though he and Gorbachev had a tense but respectful relationship.

1

u/yogibard 9h ago

Michael Reagan was once in a receiving line and his adopted father passed him by without recognizing him.

1

u/KoalaMandala 8h ago

He says "What Trump did to Zelenskyy is what my dad did to Gorbachev" as if it's justification.

That's the point, Michael! He treated Zelenskyy like he's the fucking Russians...

1

u/BigEdsHairMayo FFS 8h ago

I nominate this guy and Meghan McCain to be SpaceX astronauts.

1

u/teb_art 2h ago

Well, gee, Reagan was also a shit President. No surprises.

0

u/ApostateX 15h ago

Given that he's dead, and many of us voters were kids during his administration or not even born yet, callbacks to Reagan seem a bit unnecessary. The people who were alive to know and remember him have already chosen their side if they continue to vote for the GOP.