What’s more, those aren’t campaign documents from low-level staffers or hacks at a political party: He’s advocating the Russians steal documents produced by the secretary of state-and he wants to broadcast them to the world. The only way to procure those emails would be to steal them. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” he announced. He wouldn’t ask Putin to desist from hacking his enemy instead, he mused aloud about how he hoped Russia would obtain Hillary Clinton’s email. It’s hard to imagine that this chain of events was coordinated. Yet Trump and Putin profited from one another in measurable ways.Īt Wednesday’s press conference, Trump made clear that he wasn’t standing in Putin’s way. That was followed by the leak of the Democratic National Committee emails, on the eve of the convention-an event that Julian Assange implied was intended to injure Hillary Clinton. First, Trump softened the Republican Party’s stance on Ukraine then Trump announced that he wouldn’t come rushing to the aid of NATO allies invaded by Russia.
![trump the manchurian candidate trump the manchurian candidate](https://images.thestar.com/bwkAIQ3cq_igopKFZWQRAuljcXk=/1086x724/smart/filters:cb(2700061000)/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/opinion/star-columnists/2018/03/22/voters-are-reduced-to-spectators-as-life-imitates-art-in-washington/afp_v665k.jpg)
Let’s review the events of the past few weeks. But it doesn’t take much imagination to describe the relationship between the Kremlin and Trump campaign as symbiotic. Perhaps our intelligence community has a better sense of the ultimate goal of Russia’s hack. Russia Today, Putin’s primary propaganda vehicle, routinely trashes Hillary Clinton and praises Trump’s courageous stances. And, indeed, his inner circle has made little secret of its rooting interest in the Trump campaign. Putin would be foolish not to lend Trump a quiet hand. It’s not hard to see why this dependence, and his fawning words about Putin, would endear him to the Kremlin. As one lawsuit alleges, the money arrived at Trump projects through an Icelandic investment fund “in favor” with Putin’s elite and through mysterious infusions of cash from Russia and Kazakhstan into the accounts of his partners. There would be no Trump SoHo, for instance, without capital from Russia. But Russian investors helped prop up Trump’s megabuilding projects, which were crucial to his image as a man who makes things, not just a reality television star.
![trump the manchurian candidate trump the manchurian candidate](https://billmoyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/GettyImages-533323215.jpg)
Who would? He had a record of litigiousness and going belly up. After his 2004 bankruptcy, the big banks wouldn’t touch him. This investment wasn’t incidental to Trump: It was essential. “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.” Or as Trump himself once put: “The Russian market is attracted to me.” “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,” Trump’s son, Donald Jr., once bragged. It’s true that his Moscow building never broke ground, but Russian investment flowed to his properties. Trump is baldly denying these efforts-“I have nothing to do with Russia,” he said on Wednesday. His kind words to Russian leaders and his personal style endeared him to the country’s new elite.
![trump the manchurian candidate trump the manchurian candidate](https://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/world/russia/images/manchurian-candidate-1-m.png)
When he took his many trips to Moscow, Trump praised authorities so that he could get the necessary approvals.