Donald Trump is often described as an unconventional politician, but there is at least one surprising way he’s following in the footsteps of his most recent predecessors. Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama began their presidencies with high hopes of improving U.S.-Russian relations. At a 2001 summit in Slovenia, Bush met with Vladimir Putin and famously said, “I looked the man in the eye. I found him very straightforward and trustworthy—I was able to get a sense of his soul.” In 2009 in Geneva, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, a button that was supposed to be marked with the word “reset.” (Unfortunately, and perhaps prophetically, the word used was перегрузка, meaning “overload.”) But by the end of his presidency, Bush had to defuse a conflict between Russia and neighboring Georgia, while Obama has contended with Russian adventurism in Ukraine and interference in the U.S. election. In response to the latter, Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats last month, declaring them persona non grata in the U.S.

Putin pointedly declined to retaliate over Obama’s diplomatic punishment, apparently confident that the incoming Trump administration would backtrack. “While we reserve the right to take reciprocal measures, we’re not going to downgrade ourselves to the level of irresponsible ‘kitchen’ diplomacy,” Putin said. “In our future steps on the way toward the restoration of Russia-United States relations, we will proceed from the policy pursued by the [Trump] administration.” In response, Trump tweeted yet another compliment of Putin:

Great move on delay (by V. Putin) - I always knew he was very smart! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2016

The mutual admiration between Putin and Trump seems to promise a new rapprochement. But what if Trump finds, as Bush and Obama did before him, that there are fundamental areas of disagreement with Russia which no amount of goodwill can paper over? If Trump did want to change tack, he’d find that many Americans—not just Republican hawks like Senator John McCain, but also Democrats like his defeated rival Hillary Clinton—would eagerly support an anti-Russian foreign policy.

Molly K. McKew, who has been an advisor to the government of Georgian President Saakashvili and to former Moldovan Prime Minister Filat, argues in Politico Magazine that Russia is already at war with the U.S. According to McKew, Russia sees the U.S. as “the main enemy” and is working to undermine the American-dominated global order. Thus, McKew hopes Trump will come to his senses and treat Russia as the nation’s primary threat. In other words, McKew is calling for a return to the bipolar view of global politics that held sway during the height of the Cold War in the 1950s, when Americans thought every issue was a question of the free world versus “godless communism.” McKew is admirably forthright in stating her desire:

The truth is that fighting a new Cold War would be in America’s interest. Russia teaches us a very important lesson: losing an ideological war without a fight will ruin you as a nation. The fight is the American way. When we stop fighting for our ideals abroad, we stop fighting for them at home. We won the last Cold War. We will win the next one too. When it’s us against them, they were, and are, never going to be the winner. But when it’s “all against all” — a “multipolar” world with “multi-vector” policy, a state of shifting alliances and permanent instability — Russia, with a centrally controlled, tiny command structure unaccountable for its actions in any way, still has a chance for a seat at the table.

Even if Trump’s pursuit of reconciliation with Russia is dangerous, this call for a new Cold War is equally troubling. If Trump underestimates Putin’s malevolence (or thinks he can use it to his advantage), McKew and those who think like her are engaged in reckless threat inflation, wildly overstating the extent of Russian ambitions and power in support of a costly policy.