Trump the Putin Puppet

[_moksha]

Former White House officials say they feared Putin influenced the president’s views on Ukraine and 2016 campaign
By
Shane Harris,
Josh Dawsey and
Carol D. Leonnig
Dec. 19, 2019 at 3:09 p.m. MST

Almost from the moment he took office, President Trump seized on a theory that troubled his senior aides: Ukraine, he told them on many occasions, had tried to stop him from winning the White House.

After meeting privately in July 2017 with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin at the Group of 20 Summit in Hamburg, Trump grew more insistent that Ukraine worked to defeat him, according to multiple former officials familiar with his assertions.

The president’s intense resistance to the assessment of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia systematically interfered in the 2016 campaign — and the blame he cast instead on a rival country — led many of his advisers to think that Putin himself helped spur the idea of Ukraine’s culpability, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.

One former senior White House official said Trump even stated so explicitly at one point, saying he knew Ukraine was the real culprit because “Putin told me.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/former-white-house-officials-say-they-feared-putin-influenced-the-presidents-views-on-ukraine-and-2016-campaign/2019/12/19/af0fdbf6-20e9-11ea-bed5-880264cc91a9_story.html

[_moksha]

I wish that once Trump's senior aides were able to determine that he was under the sway of Putin, there had been some safety mechanism to relay that information to the American public rather than the stop-gap measure of leaking it to the press.

[_Some Schmo]

If there's one secret that's been exceptionally well kept, it's why Trump has his tongue so far up Putin's ass. We still don't really know.

That he's got his tongue up the Russian's ass is clear as day, but what is the real reason why?

It's either the pee tape, or the simple fact that Trump is an asset in the Russian mob and makes money off them. Probably both.

[_moksha]

I think it started when Trump Enterprises began laundering money for the Russian Oligarchs with real estate transactions. Easy Russian-backs loans through Deutsche Bank helped cement the relationship.

I hope that pee tape is not real. I can understand the cheeseburgers and having Stormy Daniels swat him with a rolled-up magazine, but urinating on a hotel mattress that the Obamas once slept on seems too bizarre. You would think Trump would just have Vladimir send over Maria Butina and a rolled-up copy of Pravda.