Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Focus Group podcast.

I'm Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bullwork, and this week we're talking about the GOP's

evolution on foreign policy.

One year ago, around when Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, I did a focus group

of two-time Trump voters, and they were firmly pro-Ukraine.

One year on, not so much.

Many 29 percent of Republicans see Russia as a major threat to U.S. interests, according

to a January Pew research poll.

That's down for 51 percent in March 2022.

At that time, only 9 percent of Republicans thought we were doing, quote-unquote, too much

for Ukraine.

This past January, that number jumped to 40 percent.

The Iraq War also began 20 years ago this week.

All of the Republican voters we talked to supported it 20 years ago, but now they are deeply

cynical about American foreign policy.

My guest today is Tom Nichols, staff writer at The Atlantic, and Professor Emeritus of National

Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College.

He's also my good buddy.

Tom, thanks for being here.

I'm just going to ask you an open-ended question just to start, because you already tweeted,

and you already showed me your face right before we started the podcast, to indicate that

perhaps your reaction to hearing these voters was one of a deep concern, but just tell

...