Hiding in plain sight
A new book says Trump may be a Russian asset compromised by billions of laundered dollars in shady real estate deals.
In House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia, veteran journalist and author Craig Unger names 59 Russians as business associates of Trump (who has claimed he has none) and follows the purported financial links between them and the Trump Organization going back decades.
Newsweek asked Unger some questions.
You call this the greatest intelligence operation of our time. What do you mean by that?
It started out as a simple money-laundering operation at Trump Tower in 1984, when a Russian mobster came to Trump Tower with $6 million in cash and bought five condos. This is the template for what begins to unfold. At least 1,300 of Trump condos in the United States have been sold similarly. All cash purchases through anonymous sources. Those numbers reflect only domestic property. After the demise of the Soviet Union, the KGB decided to create multibillion-dollar companies to survive. The use of the term mafia state is not just a metaphor. It really explains how Russia works. The mafia essentially reports to Putin.
But, Newsweek says, the Trumps have always talked about this openly, so how does the government not know about it? Unger says the real estate industry has terrible regulation.
Which of your findings do you think Americans would find most shocking?
There is a Russian asset in the White House. He is an asset. I believe he is an agent, but it’s hard to prove he is knowledgeable. When you look at the 59 Russians, some live in Trump Tower. The Russian mafia is a state actor, and it has direct ties to Russian intelligence, and they have been located in the home of the president of the United States!
And not only is he an asset, he is also a very obedient asset. Helsinki.
And yet there is absolutely nothing that the famous ‘checks and balances’ can do to stop this runaway train.
Indeed.
Oh, wait, they mean about being a Russian asset…
Oh, they can. They just won’t. We can start changing that in November.If this is true, and Mueller’s investigation blows the lid off it, that will be a game changer. Unfortunately these things take time.
Skeletor, I’m not sure about your confidence (such as it is – clearly damning with faint praise) in the checks and balances. In my simple scientists mind a check and balance prevents oscillation outside acceptable parameters automatically and without intervention. otherwise the intervention is actually the check/balance. What all this demonstrates is in fact that Democracies by and large function on norms and have no inherent in-built protections.
Rob,
Yes, if we all decide we want to be ruled by a Russian asset, then we will be. Yes, our intervention is the check.
If the Democrats put up anybody credible in 2020, Trump is gone. If Mueller’s report uncovers serious collusion, I think it’s likely he’s gone before then.
If we get a bunch of genius liberals voting for protest candidates or sitting at home “to teach them a lesson”, then our nightmare will continue.
Skeletor, there is another “genius” group that we might need to worry about – those who insist they are moderates. I don’t know about other parts of the country, but around here that usually means they believe in choice and a teeny tiny welfare state that helps those who “aren’t lazy”, maintains the roads, and votes for a living wage; they retain the right to hate Muslims, women, blacks, and other groups while maintaining their “moderate” cred through the liberal ideas they espouse (above).
Most of those that I talk to are totally unwilling to consider voting this election because they claim (1) both the parties are alike; or (2) Democrats are raging socialists who will “go too far”. Many of them hold both these positions simultaneously.
I love this politically savvy splaining. If the Democrats nominate a candidate who wins in 2020 then Trump is gone…nooooooooooo shit Sherlock.
God I wish I could persuade you to stop doing this, Skeletor. Nobody here needs boring conventional party-political advice about not voting for the protest candidate yadda yadda. That’s just not interesting and it’s not worth discussing. I don’t even understand why you read the posts, because you seem to be on a different track altogether.