Who still believes that Trump was a Putin asset?

[kentuck]

If he was, it would explain a lot of the puzzle pieces.

As I recall, many of us believed him to be a Russian agent or Putin "asset" while he was the President of the United States.

If that were true, it would be the grandest conspiracy ever.

Of course, once in power, there would be nothing they would not do to stay in power. Stealing an election would be the least of their concerns.

If we were really into conspiracy theories, we could tie the present threat of war in the Ukraine to the possible exposure of the Russian asset that was willing to incite an insurrection and attempt to overthrow an American election.

If anyone was really into conspiracy theories...

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. I do.

[bdamomma]

2. I do too

Putin is not finished with us.

[Skittles]

3. still KNOWS

yes INDEED

[flying_wahini]

4. Even Conspiracies are true once in awhile.

[Lucky Luciano]

59. The biggest conspiracy was the one where thousands of fake conspiracies...

…we’re concocted to cloak the real ones!

[brooklynite]

5. Never believed it...

Russia didn't need Trump to do anything for him; just to have him in office to cause chaos and make "democracy" look unattractive.

[58Sunliner]

51. How enlightening.

[brooklynite]

63. Simple question...

What did Putin get Trump to do that Trump wouldn't have done on his own.

Destroy everything in Obama's legacy?

Be a xenophobe against immigration?

Spread conspiracy theories about election integrity?

[Doodley]

75. Why did Trump say, "Russia if you are listening?" Why did Trump resist

sanctions against Russia? Why did Trump hold secret meetings with Putin and Russian diplomats? Why did Trump refuse to ever say a bad word against Putin? Why did Trump embrace Russian election interference?

[58Sunliner]

100. You are looking at the icing instead of the cake. Simple mistake.

[brooklynite]

103. No. What I'm not doing is starting with "of course he did" assumptions.

[Dorian Gray]

98. I agree with this

I think Russia cultivated a relationship with him. Powerful people laundered money through him. Power of suggestion by very rich men whom he respects (including Putin).

But a direct asset/agent working intentionally for Russian interests? He's not smart enough to maintain the lies.

[Bev54]

6. He was Putin's asset that turned into a liability.

[lagomorph777]

105. Exactly. A wannabe asset; defended Putin at every turn.

But his innumerable character defects and stupid moves made him problematic.

[sarcasmo]

7. Lavrov laughing with Trump in the Oval.

[WHITT]

8. Forget Conspiracies

Donnie stated in front of international cameras at Helsinki that he trusted Putin over 17 U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

[Evolve Dammit]

44. this!

[SouthernDem4ever]

65. I know, what do you have to do to people to get them to see trump for what he is?

the whole thing is in our face!

[LoisB]

72. Indeed he did.

[paleotn]

81. Putin said nice things about him.

He loves anyone who says nice things about him and Putin manipulated him like any good KGB agent. The thing about Donnie the Dumbass is it's all about him all the time. Stroke his ego a little bit and you can get Donnie the Dumbass to do just about anything. I don't think the Russians got much from him intel wise in a traditional sense. He was there just to cause chaos in the US and within the western allies. Mission accomplished in that aspect.

[pnwest]

9. 100% in agreement that the Putin/Ukraine business

is all about Putin getting buggy, due to the possibility that the entire trump/Russia collusion is about to be exposed. I’m convinced the evidence trail of the insurrection will reveal it was just another ploy in the plan to hobble/weaken the US via an incompetent president who actually IS a Russian asset. It’s aaaaalllll going to be exposed, going all the way back to trump’s first campaign - and Putin is losing his shit.

[wnylib]

57. I think that the Russian takeover of Ukraine

is not a result of Trump's failed coup. I do not think that Russia's actions now are an attempted cover up for their role in American politics. What need would Putin have to cover it up? Who does he answer to in the US? Nobody. On the contrary, many Americans answer to Putin.

He first invaded Ukraine in 2014, before Trump ever ran for office. Hillary condemned that invasion. So Putin supported Trump against Hillary in order to continue with Ukraine and prevent intervention from NATO.

Trump was definitely a Putin asset, IMO. Putin might think that Biden's ability to rally NATO against Russia is weak, partly because of the dumbass American media who continually pump out negative images of Biden to the American public. NPR was in full force on that today, blaming Biden for not single handedly ending a pandemic which, by definition, is world wide and therefore beyond his control. Not once do they ever hold anti vaxxers and anti maskers responsible for spreading and continuing the virus, or the Republican leaders who egg them on to do it. NPR has become a total waste of airtime. Catering to corporate funding, I suppose.

[Quakerfriend]

10. I do!

If it’s ever proven, they should completely erase him from the history books.

[Jilly_in_VA]

11. Of course he was

Putin's little puppet. Arschlich.

[FakeNoose]

12. I think he was willing to be used by Putin in order to get elected

Once he was POTUS, he had to maintain the ruse that they had no contact before the election.

Was he a spy? ... no of course not.

Was he an asset, like an operative for a foreign government? ... well no, because they didn't work that way.

Was he willing to do anything like a lapdog to get approval from Putin? ... oh yes absolutely.

Pootie knew how to push all of his buttons.

[Artistree22]

28. This is exactly what I've thought for a while too.

I also think that putin has some blackmail material on him and that the orange rapist is very scared of the russian mafia. They have had a presence in Florida for a while and I think that they have operated as a go between.
Just my 2 cents.

ha ha pootie and the dump.

love n peace

[Dorian Gray]

99. Yes this

and it's totally pathetic.

[PTWB]

13. Trump's own behavior indicated that he was owned by Putin.

There's no conspiracy theory there. It's just an objective analysis of the facts.

[hamsterjill]

53. Well said!!!!

Thank you.

[brewens]

14. Maybe not an asset like I thought, but Putin probably was connected to all the meetings everyone

connected to TFG administration lied about. He may not have been calling all the shots, but I bet Putin was advised every step of the way and made use of any information he got.

[DLevine]

15. Putin's useful idiot. nt

[Amishman]

101. my take as well

not a direct order taking asset, but such an easily manipulated idiot as to effectively be the same thing

[alittlelark]

16. Certainly

[tenderfoot]

17. He's a US based Billionaires Puppet with lots of help from Putin

Last edited Thu Jan 20, 2022, 08:09 PM - Edit history (1)

I think the call is coming from inside the USA.

[Orrex]

18. The urgency with which his KKKultists mock the accusation tells us much

[gibraltar72]

19. Always have and still do.

[kentuck]

20. Does anyone believe Boris Epshstyn was Putin's eye in the White House?

Where did he come from? How did Donald Trump become acquainted with Boris?

[Captain Zero]

96. Epshteyn got a subpoena January 18 to testify before the 1/6 Committee.

Even though he was ousted from the White House in 2017 after the US's three top moles were killed in Russia, and while he was seeking raw intelligence from the NSC, he was back with Trump's campaign in 2020? hmmmm...

From the Committee request:

Dear Mr. Epshteyn:
Pursuant to the authorities set forth in House Resolution 503 and the rules of the House of
Representatives, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States
Capitol (“Select Committee”) hereby transmits a subpoena that compels you to produce the
documents set forth in the accompanying schedule by February 1, 2022, and to appear for a
deposition on February 8, 2022.
The Select Committee is investigating the facts, circumstances, and causes of the January
6th attack and issues relating to the peaceful transfer of power in order to identify and evaluate
lessons learned and to recommend to the House and its relevant committees corrective laws,
policies, procedures, rules, or regulations.
The Select Committee’s investigation has revealed credible evidence that you publicly
promoted claims that the 2020 election was stolen and participated in attempts to disrupt or delay
the certification of the election results based on your allegations. You participated in a press
conference on November 19, 2020, during which attorneys for the Trump campaign promoted
claims of election fraud.1 Published reports have placed you at meetings at the Willard Hotel in
the days leading up to January 6,2
and you are reported to have participated in a call with former
President Trump on the morning of January 6, during which options were discussed to delay the
certification of election results in light of Vice President Pence’s unwillingness to deny or delay
certification.3

Accordingly, the Select Committee seeks documents and a deposition regarding these and
other matters that are within the scope of the Select Committee’s inquiry. ... ...

Source:

https://january6th.house.gov/sites/democrats.january6th.house.gov/files/2022-1-18.BGT%20Letter%20to%20Epshteyn_Redacted.pdf

[gibraltar72]

21. Always have and still do.

[DBoon]

22. so that meeting between Trump and Putin was completely innocent?

On July 16, 2018, President Trump met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the Finnish capital, Helsinki. The two world leaders, intertwined in both international and domestic politics, spent two hours speaking alone. The only other people in the room were their interpreters; even key administration officials later said they did not know the full details of what was discussed.

After their meeting, the two leaders began a 45-minute news conference that would be remembered as one as one of Trump’s most controversial, with the U.S. president casting doubt upon the findings of his own intelligence agencies and telling reporters that Putin had given him an “extremely strong and powerful” denial of claims that Russia had interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/03/05/trump-met-putin-helsinki-more-than-days-later-will-we-ever-find-out-what-they-said/

[Jedi Guy]

23. I don't believe he was/is an asset in the sense that you probably mean the term.

He's not being "run" by the SVR, the foreign intelligence service of the Russian Federation. He's not meeting/communicating with handlers and receiving orders from Putin in particular or the Kremlin in general. When people say "asset" I think they generally mean like Robert Hansen or Aldrich Ames. I don't think that's the case with Trump.

Do I think he's being manipulated by Putin and the Kremlin? Definitely. They correctly identified him as a narcissistic asshole whose world is 100% transactional. Even if he weren't laughably easy to manipulate (and he most certainly is), he's an agent of chaos because of his own worst impulses. So they leveraged every trick in the book to help him win in 2016, and then sat back and chortled to themselves as he made a mess of everything he touched. Maybe they threw some good old kompromat into the mix, too. Wouldn't shock me.

But if the POTUS were a Russian asset and taking orders from them, someone somewhere in the US intelligence community would've figured it out by now, and they'd have blabbed about it. Otherwise we're talking about hundreds or thousands of people who know/suspect, but have done nothing about it.

[DFW]

24. Agent? No. Asset? Definitely!

Putin would NEVER have an American egomaniac loudmouth as an agent of his government. The second he wanted to make a point, Trump would have blurted it out in a press conference. But as an unwitting tool? He trashed our economy, our domestic policy, our foreign policy, and our environmental policy. And Putin never even had to fire a shot at us. Trump and Moscow Mitch (more apt than most think) handed him a victory on a silver platter.

[BlueJac]

25. Me, all along!

[peggysue2]

26. Think back to the Helsinki Summit

Conjure up the images of the Former Guy in complete submission to Putin. Remember the Former Guy's statement that he couldn't think of any reason for Putin meddling in our elections (he had to walk that statement back later) and then recall how he publicly stated doubt about his own US intelligence agencies. Also, there were no notes released during the up close and personal conversation between Trump and Putin.

And Putin's demeanor? Spring in the man's step and smiling ear to ear. Who knew the former KGB officer could even smile?

Lapdog, puppet, asset??

All of the above including traitor. Now, DT's just a terrified old man waiting to be found out.



Btw, the contrast in Putin's mood after meeting with President Biden was decidedly different. Very glum like a school hooligan sent to the Principal's office.

[TygrBright]

27. I would say there's considerable circumstantial evidence publicly available.

In the form of timelines, contacts, communications, etc.

The existence of non-circumstantial evidence (bank records, accounts, documents, reliable corroborative HUMINT) remains hypothetical at this point.

But I'm not sure it matters whether [Redacted] meets a formal definition of "asset" in the intelligence/covert operations sense.

The effects of much of his activity - financial, political, communications/propaganda, business operations, favors done and for whom - has been of substantial benefit to Putin. VERY substantial benefit.

In that sense, he's been the most cost-effective asset Putin ever had.

wearily,
Bright

[kentuck]

30. If he was in the White House at this moment...

..he would be devoted to tearing down NATO, per Putin's wishes, I have little doubt.

[Wounded Bear]

29. Me! Me!

at the very least, he was a "useful idiot" that Putin manipulated. But frankly, I think he was an active asset.

[YorkRd]

31. Trump was a 40 year project by the Russians

“The KGB ‘played the game as if they were immensely impressed by his personality’, Yuri Shvets, a key source for a new book, tells the Guardian.

Donald Trump was cultivated as a Russian asset over 40 years and proved so willing to parrot anti-western propaganda that there were celebrations in Moscow, a former KGB spy has told the Guardian.

Yuri Shvets, posted to Washington by the Soviet Union in the 1980s, compares the former US president to “the Cambridge five”, the British spy ring that passed secrets to Moscow during the second world war and early cold war.”



[link:https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/29/trump-russia-asset-claims-former-kgb-spy-new-book|

[WarGamer]

32. I think reality would suggest he was an "Ally" to Putin.

The other words are just conspiratorial sounding stuff.

In fact the ONLY bad thing I remember Trump did to Putin was the ground battle in Syria where 300 Russian nationals were KIA by US forces... the largest Russian loss of life in a single battle since WW2 if you count the mercenaries as soldiers.

[kentuck]

33. Of course, it is possible that it was a contrived story...

...for obvious reasons.

Trump later deserted the Kurds in Syria and gave it to Russia and Turkey.

After he badmouthed NATO and all our allies in Europe.

[WarGamer]

34. It was announced by the DoD at a news conference with drone video and details.

Hundreds of Russian Nationals KIA.

Deir Ezzor, Syria.

And certainly, TFG did massive damage to US-NATO and US-EU relations...

[kentuck]

35. I remember the story.

I still think it may have been contrived. Just my opinion.

[WarGamer]

36. I suppose it's possible... the Fed Gov't has the power to just about anything

[kentuck]

37. With Trump in power...

...it makes it even more possible.

I believe we are exposed to political propaganda all of the time. Sometimes we know it and sometimes we don't.

[WarGamer]

38. Agreed.

[underpants]

39. I have no doubt

[GB_RN]

40. No Doubt In My Mind

My dad read about a KGB agent who defected back in the 90s, I think, and said that tRump was being recruited as an asset when he visited Moscow in the 80s. They'd fluffed his ego, just like Putin and Kim Jong-Un did, as they'd already had a psych profile done up on tRump. tRump came back here and almost immediately started talking about running for president. They knew their efforts had paid off beyond their wildest dreams.

[ybbor]

41. ✋🏻

[Demobrat]

42. I think Trump owes Putin/Russian Banks

a LOT of money and will do anything to make sure those loans are not called in.

Is that the same as being a Russian asset?

[Justice matters.]

92. An asset is something that at some point

was bought and paid for, but there's also the emoluments (profiting from the presidency as we've seen) and the stay out of jail shield (the OLC memo from the Nixon years).

[Silent3]

43. He was an asset, knowing or not.

With Trump's overblown ego, he easily could have imagine he was playing Putin, and not the other way around.

But Trump certainly paid off for Putin, and continues to pay off. Putin is on his way to successfully destroying American democracy.

[iemanja]

45. Me

Always have.

[2naSalit]

46. I don't believe anything...

I do know that he is a russian asset.

Here, listen to this, it's about 120 minutes, totally worth it.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017706346

[Evolve Dammit]

47. Still think pee pee tape happened. Too bizarre to make up, and enough comprimate to control 45.

[homegirl]

48. I have

never doubted it. When I visited the USSR winter of 1959-1960 my hotel room was bugged, I was followed and approached. Why? I always wondered then when the discussion was centered on Trump/Putin it finally came to me-Six months before I had been employed by US Air Force Special Services in Western Europe.

Trump was doing business there and trying to negotiate a hotel deal in Moscow. He had talked about running for office, he was vulnerable and money hungry. The Perfect Patsy!

[panader0]

49. Everything in the Christopher Steele dossier has been shown to be true.

Except the pee tapes. Putin still has those.

[Mustellus]

50. Da.

[wendyb-NC]

52. I do

He seemed infatuated with Putin during his campaign and afterwards.

[Wild blueberry]

54. Asset or useful idiot

Been groomed for decades. What happens when he's no longer useful?

[58Sunliner]

55. He was. He wasn't the only one.

Remember DT was too stupid to pull the levers.

[William769]

56. He still is.

[Greybnk48]

58. Absolutely. Putin's puppet. n/t

[relayerbob]

60. I have never doubted it

And Putin has more of those assets in place than TFG

[MurrayDelph]

61. Asset: probably

Asshat: indubitally.

[onecaliberal]

62. Yup. Bloated tic needs the russian money. American banks wont loan him money.

[liberal N proud]

64. The body language gave that away

[AdamGG]

66. Was and still is....(it's not like the KGB would stop extorting him)

Once you're owned by the KGB (FSB, same difference), it's going to be for life. It was on record that Erik Prince (founder of Blackwater & Betsy DeVos' brother) met with Russian agents in the Seychelles during the 2016 campaign and was looking to set up back channel communications with them. Trump's actions in office, undercutting our allies, were always consistent with acting on Putin's agenda. He never, ever, did anything but effusively praise him.

So, in addition to whatever Russia had on Trump to start with, they now have 4 years of treason to blackmail him with. Trump is like a living batman villain, except he's mentally dimmer than all of them.

[stollen]

67. I read "All the Presidents' Men" and saw the movie.

Both scared me to death.

The situation we're in now is much more frightening.

[Doodley]

68. Remember, Trump was a Democrat. I think it likely he was a Manchurian candidate.

Something happened when Trump was in Russia. The pee tapes, blackmail, maybe brainwashing? He came back a different man with an agenda that would please one man above all others--Putin.

[monkeyman1]

79. well ,he said republican's are stupid & easy to manipulate!

gum's trump , donny jr, said they don't need American bank's because they had all the Russian money they need ??? think about it ?

[Jarqui]

69. I still do.

I don't think Trump is the only one.

I think Russian blackmail techniques delivered Lindsay Graham. Whether Putin did that or Trump's people, I'm not sure. But is is how the Russians operate and Trump would probably know that as well as anybody from first hand experience. That probably contributes to the hold he's got on the GOP.

[calimary]

70. I do, too.

A TOTAL Putin stooge. Putin's pet. Putin's puppet. Putin's patsy. Putin's patty-cake. Putin's putty. Dear God, please stop me...

[LoisB]

71. Certainly Putin's puppet, lapdog, butt-kisser, village idiot, servant...

[Joinfortmill]

73. He was compromised

By his money laundering activities and possibly his sexual perversions.

[Doodley]

76. Yes! And a man who is so twisted in his public life is likely very perverted in his private life.

[Mr. Ected]

74. I think the proof was presented to us every day in clear daylight

There are apparently some places we as a country cannot go in a 2-party system.

I believe the RNC was fully complicit and that nothing has changed in the wake of Trump's defeat at the polls.

[NewHendoLib]

77. Of course he is

[jaxexpat]

78. It's hard for me to think of that useless pos as an "asset".

[LetsGoBiden]

80. No I don't think he is

Besides Trump did not have to be he would gladly let Putin play him Trump would do anything to get elected hence how he used the emails to provide a fake scandal he did a Rope a dope by the time everybody figured out it was a much to do about nothing he was elected and I think Putin was always gonna do what Putin was gonna do which was invade Ukraine he wanted back territory that was lost

[Doodley]

82. Putin smiled as he poured Trump a vodka. "You'd be a dashing, heroic agent, just like James Bond!"

[barbtries]

83. i do.

possibly as a useful idiot. probably in hock to putin up to his eyeballs. i also believe he was being groomed since the late 1980s?

[paleotn]

84. Easy to manipulate in order to cause chaos in the west.....

but not smart enough to be an asset in the traditional, espionage sense. Those in Donnie's orbit, however, could be used for conventional espionage and probably were.

[bucolic_frolic]

85. Puppet state was historically a Kremlin tactic

Post-war eastern Europe

[Picaro]

86. I do.

Everything he did seemed designed to weaken us and strengthen Russia. Remember the sudden withdrawal from Syria leaving our staunch Kurdish allies in the lurch. Absolutely inexplicable. The Russians were using our forward bases immediately once we suddenly left.

[JohnnyRingo]

87. Not into conspiracies and I wouldn't call him a Russian asset.

But if it's true I don't think he had a lot of training or planning.
Putin probably just said "We'll get you in office, you just run the country to the best of your abilities". And that's what we got.

Pretty cheap asset, and disposable too.

[harumph]

88. For quite awhile. Yes.

[Meowmee]

89. He was bankrolled by and beholden

To foreign banks, R and China I believe, for many years. No one else would loan him money after several bankruptcies as I recall. Russian mobsters and others living in tt. The meeting in the oval office, Helsinki- he was so clearly afraid of P. It was awful to watch. He did his best to help and protect him. So yes an asset. Russia if your listening and so on.

[BComplex]

90. During the impeachment hearings, it was all but stated that he was a russian asset.

All those ambassadors and staff pretty much knew he was helping russia all he possibly could, and doing everything pootie poot told him to do.

[Kid Berwyn]

91. Still don't know what they talked about in secret.

"We have all the funding we need out of Russia."

thus spoke Eric Trump

https://themoscowproject.org/collusion/eric-trump-funding-need-russia/

[Blue Owl]

93. Donny's Sugar Vladdy

[highnooner]

94. Name any other person who he was reverentially deferential to...

Name one not named Putin. That is the most telling aspect of this conspiracy.

[rockfordfile]

95. trump, republican senators , republican congressmen etc..

Right-wing un-American businessmen.

[Dorian Gray]

97. Knowingly?

Maybe not.

Unknowingly? Absolutely.

[spinbaby]

102. This is a wee bit off topic

But look up the Arnolfini portrait and tell me Putin isn’t a vampire.

[lagomorph777]

104. Was there ever any question about that?

Obviously, he's a Putin asset. Or maybe a Putin liability who wants to be an asset, but is really just an asshole.

[ElementaryPenguin]

106. Me!!!!!

No doubt whatsoever!

[redstatebluegirl]

107. I do

I think Putin had video of that slime bag and used it, and financial screws to keep him in line.