Whose Texas is it Anyway?

All about the Russian-backed Texit movement

If you’re relatively new to the issues related to Kremlin propaganda and how it’s affecting other countries (including the United States), I recommend reading some background posts I wrote that explains things in more detail along with links to other sites where you can read more to educate yourself.

Every now and then you hear rumblings about the idea of Texas seceding from the United States into its own independent country. In some ways Texas has a lot in common with another US state—Alaska.

Like Alaska Texas is among the larger US states whose state politics have long been dominated by Republicans. Like Alaska Texas is rich in natural resources. Like Alaska the Kremlin would also love it if Texas would be no longer part of the United States.

In the case of Alaska Russia wants it back because it had been once part of the Russian Empire until Russia sold it to the US in 1867. As for Texas it has never been part of Russia at all.

A quick look at the Wikipedia shows that Texas was originally populated by indigenous tribes. Spanish explorers discovered this land and it was eventually colonized by the Spanish. When France started to settle in neighboring Louisiana, the Spanish responded by settling in Texas because they considered the French to be a competitive threat. When the US purchased Louisiana, many Americans decided to settle in Texas as well as Louisiana.

The 1810-1821 Mexican War of Independence resulted in Texas being part of the newly independent Mexico. With Texas being subjected to raids from hostile Comanche tribes, Mexico liberalized its immigration policy and recruited settlers from the US, Europe, and the Mexican interior. This backfired as many of the recent arrivals had flouted Mexico's prohibition against slavery. At the same time the US had unsuccessfully attempted to purchase Texas from Mexico. This led to a series of revolts known as the Anahuac Disturbances in 1832. From there those disturbances led to the 1835-1836 Texas Revolution, which resulted in Texas becoming an independent country known as the Republic of Texas.

The Republic of Texas only lasted from 1836 to 1845 when it was annexed by the United States and it became the 28th state.

Since the 1990s there have been a fringe militia group known as the Republic of Texas who have advocated for Texas to become an independent country again on the grounds that the original US annexation of Texas was illegal. They consider Texas to be under US occupation. So far this group haven't managed to turn public sentiments into any concrete moves towards an independent Texas.

Last year there were the occasional threats on Twitter/X calling for the succession of Texas if the 2024 election gets “stolen” from Donald Trump like this one.

Over the past year there have been rumblings, primarily on Twitter/X calling for Texas to secede from the United States.

Sometimes the English grammar is a bit off, such as “As nationalist we much focus on our own nations.”

There are strong suspicions that the Russian troll bots may be behind the renewed calls for Texas to secede from the United States and become an independent nation once again.

At times it's blatant that these Texas nationalists are really Russians because they'll talk about Texas being a warm water port.

A Russian would be more concerned about warm water ports because a huge part of the country includes Siberia and parts of the Artic Circle, which remains frozen much of the year. With the exception of Alaska, the issue of warm water ports is simply not relevant to most Americans due to a more moderate climate.

Most blatantly the former Russian president and current deputy chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev had tweeted his eagerness to see the establishment of a People's Republic of Texas.

Since at least 2015 Vladimir Putin has backed the idea of Texas seceding from the US because he and other Russians have blamed the US for the breakup of the Soviet Union and they consider Texas secession to be payback to the US.

The Russians are especially gleeful about the US border crisis in Texas because they believe that it will increase the chances of Texas seceding from the US.

Last year Donald Trump had even endorsed a Texas Republican named David Covey running for the state legislature who favors Texas becoming an independent country. Covey was later defeated in a runoff election by Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan.

With Donald Trump's recent inauguration as the president of the United States, it's likely that all this Kremlin-fueled talk of Texas seceding from the United States will be a dead issue for now. But there's always the possibility that this issue can be revived in the future through one or more of the following scenarios:

Scenario One: Donald Trump isn't showing enough deference to Vladimir Putin. Back in November one of Russia's state-run TV channels decided to celebrate Trump's electoral victory by showing a montage of old nude and semi-nude photographs of Melania Trump from her modeling days. Even though those photos originally came to light in 2016 and anyone can find them with a Google search, it's obvious that the Kremlin was trying to send some kind of subliminal message to Donald Trump to always toe the Kremlin line—or else. I can easily see the Kremlin try to fan the flames of Texas secession as a way of embarrassing Trump should he fail to do whatever the Kremlin wants him to do.

Scenario Two: If Trump suddenly dies or gets removed from office due to the 25th Amendment and he gets replaced by Vice President J.D. Vance, things could get more dicey. There are Vance's tech bro allies Elon Musk and Peter Thiel and it has been widely rumored that they will try to vicariously rule the US through Vance. There is already a schism in the MAGA movement between those who want to outlaw and deport all illegal immigrants and the tech bros who want to see more immigrants brought in through the H1-B visas. This schism could increase further under a Vance Administration and the Kremlin could take advantage by stoking the cause of Texas secession once again as a way of weakening the US.

Scenario Three: If the Democrats win enough seats in the 2026 midterm elections to flip both houses of Congress and they put up a strong opposition to either President Trump (if he manages to remain in office) or President Vance (if he succeeds in getting Trump removed from office under the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution), the Kremlin could also stoke the cause of Texas secession as a way of creating chaos in the US and possibly weaken the US as a republic.

I don't see the issue of Texas secession ever going completely away unless something happens in US politics that will kill the issue once and for all, such as actively taking on income inequality or encouraging the opening of new factories in the US that provides jobs and pays workers a living wage. Giving people steady well-paid work that expands the middle class is the best way to stop the idea of Texas secession. If you’re busy at your job and you make enough money to support yourself and your family, you’ll be less likely to be swayed by the idea of a new independent Republic of Texas. Getting money out of politics would help as well because it could reduce the undue influence that the wealthy have on American politics.

But I don't forsee any of this happening as long as the government is dominated by Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and their allies in the Make America Great Again movement. So we'll probably have to continue to endure the occasional rumblings (with a little help from the Kremlin) of making Texas into an independent country.

My Substack is free to subscribe but if you want to make a comment, you’ll need to take out a paid subscription. Click on the button below for more details.