SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov knows the power of strategy.
GARRY KASPAROV: The game of chess is built on strategy. Tactics accompany your strategic plan.
SIMON: From a young age, his sharp mind easily outmaneuvered his opponents. He went on to win national competitions and reign as grandmaster for two decades. And after chess, he took on politics. Garry Kasparov became an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. Facing possible arrest, he left Russia in 2013 and moved to New York. Garry Kasparov has since founded the Renew Democracy Initiative, and he now writes a newsletter called The Next Move.
KASPAROV: I thought it would be very important to inform Americans about the real threats to the American republic. Democracy is always in grave danger when it's being besieged by the extremism coming from one side or another side of political spectrum. And I see no strategy of those who are opposing Trump. And when one side has a strategy and the opposite side is some kind of disarray and doesn't have a clear vision, I'm afraid the outcome of the battle may not be the one we're looking for.
SIMON: You are critical of President Trump's tariff policies. And to be sure, you were critical of President Obama's tariff policies, too. For somebody who talks so much about autocracies and dictatorships, why are tariffs such an important issue to you?
KASPAROV: My main concern, it's not policies, but the tools he has been using. And tariffs is one of these elements. Tariffs is a form of tax. According to Article 1 of American Constitution, the tax is a privilege of the House. And I'm not aware about House playing any role in Donald Trump's decisions, you know, shifting taxes up and down, offering no explanation why he does this, except the fact that we all suspect that people around him making billions of dollars by knowing in advance what kind of crazy move Trump is going to make.
SIMON: Could the president just be deploying his own kind of chess strategy to try and convince countries to give more favorable trade policies to the U.S.?
KASPAROV: I don't think Trump cares about the countries. I think it's - he creates a space for deals. Trump put America against almost the entire world, and this is the damage that cannot be repaired in the foreseeable future. It's American reputation. I grew up in the Soviet Union, on the other side of Iron Curtain, and we viewed America as a beacon of hope, fortress of freedom. Yes, of course, it was - to some extent, it was an illusion. But we still knew that America was there, no matter who was in the Oval Office, the Republican president or Democratic president. America's fluctuations during the Cold War, it was quite minimal. Today people don't believe America is there anymore. What Trump is doing now, it's destroying American reputation.
SIMON: One of your most recent posts, you note that you've been critical of many universities, including Harvard, for not welcoming what you see as a diversity of viewpoints. Yet you say you don't like the administration decision to take funds away from universities. What's your reservation about that?
KASPAROV: Look, what I see now is that this administration is trying to replace one ideological shift by another. While, you know, I believe that Harvard and many other top schools, they did a very poor job in respecting the freedom of speech and views that were not aligned with the policy of faculty, but threatening to withdraw their funds and demanding them to do other things that clearly violate the Constitution, that's a problem. Going back to the - to what I said a few minutes ago, it's not so much about Trump's policies. It's about the methods.
SIMON: Does your viewpoint extend to the case of Mahmoud Khalil, whom the Trump administration has detained and has attempted to deport? Because you call his group - and I'm quoting your newsletter now - a fanatical student organization...
KASPAROV: Which it is.
SIMON: ...But also say the case is a fight for the Constitution. How so?
KASPAROV: Look, I totally disagree with his views and with his organization. But if you do anything like deportation - it's an executive act - it must be based on a solid constitutional ground. Again, this is policies versus methods. I believe that in this country, we must follow the procedure. And on other side, we have now the case of the citizens of El Salvador.
SIMON: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who, as we speak, is still in a prison in El Salvador, despite the Supreme Court order for him to be returned.
KASPAROV: Absolutely. And that's where - you know, that's where we have to concentrate our efforts because it was a 9-0 decision of the Supreme Court, which is quite unusual, considering the conservative nature of this court, to rule against Trump. And Trump publicly defied the order.
SIMON: You have personal experience with authoritarianism. Obviously, you grew up under Soviet totalitarianism. You have opposed Vladimir Putin's policies over the last generation in Russia. How do you see America at the moment?
KASPAROV: Look, it's - as you said, is America is a democracy, but democracy is not an insurance. Democracy, the way I see it, is more like an instrument that helps you to protect the constitutional order. Back to Russia, Putin's Russia, and, of course, Russian democracy was very feeble. It's no comparison to American institutions that are nearly 250 years old, I can recognize. You destroy the state control powers and you start privatizing them. Some people have power because of the proximity to power. That's a real danger. That's oligarchy. So that's why the Trump-Musk regime is trying to form a classical oligarchy where people who control wealth directly make decisions that concern millions and millions of American citizens, circumventing the other elected bodies.
SIMON: Mr. Kasparov, how do you feel about the argument that the United States is a democracy, and the American people who voted voted for President Trump and for a Congress who is supporting him so far?
KASPAROV: Absolutely. American people made their choice. What I want to make sure - that this choice will be theirs and in 2026, we will not face a situation similar to 2021, where Trump will start, you know, using all the levers of power. And by the way, he has many more now, including DOJ (ph) and FBI to secure his stay in power.
SIMON: Chess master, political activist and writer Garry Kasparov. He has a new newsletter. It's called The Next Move. Thank you for being with us.
KASPAROV: Yes. Thank you for having me. So I hope during our next move, we can talk about something more positive. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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