Just when I thought things could not look more bleak for Republicans in blue Connecticut, with their party refusing to fund border security or aid for Ukraine, former President Donald Trump doubled down on bashing NATO.

Trump’s taunt that Russia could do “whatever they hell they want” with American NATO allies who don’t spend enough on defense surely sent some shivers down Connecticut GOP spines.

Sure, maybe Trump can convince his base that he won the 2020 election and that President Joe Biden, not juries of Trump’s peers, is responsible for his multiple criminal indictments and a crippling civil settlement against a woman he sexually assaulted.

And apparently he will be able to turn them against, not only the mainstream media and our system of justice, but also the strategic post-World War II alliance that has kept America and its European allies at peace.

But I am sure that moderate Connecticut Republicans, not to mention the state’s many independent voters, must be appalled at this new assault on our traditional allies.

Trump has already inspired Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama to become a supreme Vladimir Putin sycophant, claiming that the Russian leader, as he slaughters innocents with his war, is at the “top of his game.”

I can’t tell you how shocking that kind of pro-Russian GOP posturing is for an old guy like me who grew up thinking of Republicans as the party of American strength overseas.

We liberal Democrats were always cast by the GOP as spineless cowards who had to be coaxed into spending more on defense, because we were too concerned with the needs of the underprivileged here at home.

It was Republicans’ revolutionary conservative hero, Ronald Reagan, who they said won the Cold War with his steely resolve. It is hard to even image Reagan backing down from a war-making Russian president as he attacks Europe.

Trump has worked hard to shred the image of the late Sen. John McCain, an unwavering American hawk. Maybe Reagan is next.

I don’t see Connecticut voters buying into it, even as GOP elected leaders remain mum, while their national party implodes with cult worship of a wannabe dictator.

As each day rolls by, and the election grows closer, it will become harder and harder for Connecticut Republicans to ask so many of their constituents to look away, as they humor the Trump base and refuse to call out the alarming drift of GOP policy and priorities into authoritarianism.

These are not normal times for politics as usual.

I hope that GOP leaders in the state recognize this and acknowledge that silence is complicity.

I doubt Nikki Haley will be able to rescue them with some kind of Republican electoral normalcy before November. They need to buckle up and confront the corrosive Trumpism here at home.

The GOP focusing on electric car sales in Connecticut, as the presumptive leader of their party attacks our European allies in a time of war, is absurd.

Certainly here in eastern Connecticut, where much of the cultural zeitgeist and an enormous part of the economy have been focused on national defense and protecting our allies for the last 75 years, NATO bashing is a nonstarter.

The region has two Republican state senators, and I’d sure like to hear from them, as their party leader encourages a war-mongering Russia to have its way with our longtime allies.

Sooner rather than later, they will need to choose between the Trumpers in their base and the rest of us.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com