When hosting presidential historian Michael Beschloss, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow pointed out that even in the world of strange presidential alliances, Donald Trump’s “love affair” with Russian President Vladimir Putin seems far off-base.

“Presidents make alliances of convenience with all sorts of jerks and despots,” the host noted. “They all do it for various reasons.”

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“The Putin love affair for Trump seems different,” she continued. “Is it possible that this is just the latest iteration of what lots of presidents have done with lots of bad guys over the years?”

In response, Bechloss said the Trump-Putin relationship is “qualitatively different” than anything previously seen before.

“Even when you had, for instance, presidents like FDR dealing with someone like Joseph Stalin, with whom he didn’t exactly, all the time disagree, he wasn’t always in lockstep saying that Stalin was wonderful all the time,” the historian said. “Donald Trump never criticizes Putin.”

Though many believe “Putin has something on Trump,” Beschloss said he believes there’s more to the story.

“This is a month when two other leaders became leaders for life: one is Vladimir Putin in that so-called election, and the other was President Xi in China,” he continued before noting that Trump “joked about being president for life” himself.

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“I think we always have to be suspicious that maybe in his mind,” Bechloss concluded, “this is not such a joke.”

“That is dark,” Maddow concluded.

Watch below via MSNBC:

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