Have the Russians been grooming Trump since the 1980's?

[kentuck]

I read that somewhere.

Some have even said he was a Russian agent, a true Manchurian candidate.

Of course, if he was actually a Russian agent, he would be working for Vladimir Putin.

The US Intelligence would probably know that by now.

That would be very disturbing for Vladimir Putin, knowing that they know.

If Putin had his own man in the White House, feeding him everything he knew and helping him in every conceivable way, Putin would have tried everything within his power to keep him in his position.

What could Putin possibly do to prevent the FBI from acting on their knowledge?

But, it is something that they could not tell the American people.

Sometimes conspiracy theories seem so real.

The best theory is that Trump was just a greedy asshole looking to make a dollar wherever it was available. He wanted a Trump Tower in Moscow but it never happened.

[Claustrum]

1. I don't think Putin's connection go back that far.

But Trump definitely has Russian mafia connection due to his dealings in NYC real estate. With Rudy forcing out the Italian Mafia but lets the Russian mafia in. I believe Putin and Trump connection is pretty recent with it starting as Trump as an outside chaos agent. They never intended or thought that Trump would reach the white house.

[Bev54]

24. They say that Putin starting paying attention to Trump when he met and married

his first wife. It was not too long after he started doing business with them. The Russian always have an eye on American businessmen they think they can turn.

[GB_RN]

26. No, But tRump Did Go To Moscow Back Then...

And a former KGB agent has been quoted as saying they were working him as an asset at that point: They already had a psych profile and everything. As I recall, he said the results of their efforts even back then were well beyond their expectations. Dolt45 just ate up the flattery…

[dchill]

28. Putin was in the KGB from 1975 to 1991.

That could connect him to Trump in the 80's, easily.

[Lithos]

33. He did not have the gravitas/scope in the KGB

In fact, he exited the KGB as a major if memory serves me.

Yes, the training helped shape him tremendously, but he was not a player by any stretch.

[Haggard Celine]

2. Trump supposedly got big loans from Russians.

They wouldn't give big loans or gifts to someone without expecting something in return. So how far back do these loans/gifts go? I haven't heard about when he began receiving Russian money.

Trump wouldn't allow anyone except an interpreter to be present when he met with Putin. The conversation wasn't recorded at all, so we'll never know what was said. Trump could have given Putin all sorts of information. The two men seem to be thick as thieves. I can't say whether Trump is a spy for Russia or not, but I think he could be filling a role very much like that, and I don't think it's too farfetched or a conspiracy theory to consider that possibility.

[Claustrum]

3. The Russian mafia didn't move into NYC permanently till the early 2000

during Rudy's term as mayor. The neighborhood that I lived in at the time changed to 90% Russian in a matter of 2-3 years. I believe Trump's connection to Russian mafia didn't start till the late 2000.

[Haggard Celine]

13. That makes sense.

I don't know much about NYC or the Russian mafia. It doesn't seem likely that he would've been cultivated as a Russian spy during the Soviet period, so his interaction with the Russians has probably been within the last 20 years or so. I'd like to know how long he's personally known Putin. Some people say that Putin is the richest person in the world as head of the Russian mafia along with the Russian government. It seems very possible that Trump owes money to Putin personally. Disclosing classified information and above top secret information could be how Trump pays Putin back.

[Claustrum]

20. I think Trump was angling to meet Putin when he did his Miss Universe thing in Russia.

He kept saying he wants to meet Putin personally at that thing.

[MyMission]

29. The Russian Mafia was in Brooklyn in the 1980's

And trump's daddy had built Trump village in nearby Coney island in the 1960's. I had friends who lived there. And I knew people who were Russian and connected in the late 1980's. They may not have made it to Manhattan yet, but they were all over Brighton beach. After Raygun, we saw a huge influx of Russians in the 80's, and I'm sure trump father and son made many real estate deals with them across the boroughs over the decades.

I think he wasn't exactly groomed back then, but he was courted, and recorded, and kept in play in case he might become useful in the future. I'm sure they played him.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. For many decades

perhaps even 100 years, you have all these forces in a changing and loose alliance seeking advantage against the rule of law. I wonder if it was a rolling conspiracy, scratch my back reciprocity - from speakeasies to casinos to developers to polluters to banking interests to various flavors of minor terrorists - all would prefer a weak or lawless government to give them more room to operate. Also I daresay there are clandestine operatives of various stripes who stood to make a lot of money if they backed the right horse at the right time. In this scenario the principals as we know them are front men for darker elements pushing any agenda that makes money for them and their collusions. This is what drives the world.

[localroger]

5. I think they have been grooming him since around 2012

He has always dropped hints that he might run for Prez, but it was only after 2012 that he started to seem serious about it. I think by this time Pootie had a lot of his debt secretly in reserve and may have goosed TFG to try taking the stage, and it probably didn't take much goosing because of TFG's ego. Teh Poot may regard what happened next as unexpectedly fortunate but I doubt Russia's interest in TFG's political circumstance went back past that point.

[gab13by13]

7. I take it back to 2008.

[localroger]

22. This is possible.

I call 2012 because that's when Pootie ascended the throne, but he was a major player earlier and could have been moving the chess pieces around even then. I don't think it goes back to the 1980's though. Back then the whole idea was really still a joke.

[Grins]

30. MUCH earlier!!

I wrote about this a while back. Goes back to early 80’s and Andropov who got on the KGB for not having aggressive enough field agents recruiting foreigners whom they could turn/hide/use.

The strategy to do this was laid out in a top secret memo that fell into the hands of British intelligence. And one of the prototype perfect candidates? TRUMP.

And when he married Ivana Zelníčkov, the daughter of a communist party member…Boom!!

[gab13by13]

6. Here is another example of Trump's ties to Putin.

Trump bought a mansion in Palm Beach in 2004 for 41.35 million, he outbid Jeffrey Epstein. In 2008 Trump sold the mansion to a Russian oligarch (Putin stooge) for 95 million dollars. No one moved into the mansion, the oligarch paid millions in taxes and a million per year just for the upkeep. In 2019 I think, the Russian bulldozed the mansion and sold the land.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/2020/09/15/trumps-sale-palm-beach-mansion-gains-scrutiny-again/5798386002/

[Runningdawg]

8. I think they had high hopes for 21 year old Trump and didn't get what they paid for.

They wanted an operative and got a family of useful idiots.

[Yorkie Mom]

9. If he was a Russian agent, he & the idiots around him wouldn't have had to try so hard

to make connections with Russians during the campaign.

[gab13by13]

11. Trump didn't have any trouble,

Mueller indicted dozens of Russians for interfering in the election.

[Yorkie Mom]

15. He did have trouble.

He wouldn't have such stupid mistakes.

[Blue Owl]

10. Lord knows who the hell groomed this fuck

[gab13by13]

12. He would look good in an orange jump suit.

[tosh]

35. Indeed.

[Hassler]

14. "Many people say so..."

[kentuck]

16. Words of a master propagandist...

"Many people say so..."

[keithbvadu2]

17. Kevin McCarthy

Please enter into the Congressional Record the transcript of... June 15 , 2016 Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ryan and the rest of the Republican House members discussing the fact Putin pays Trump. The Washington Post not only has the transcript, they were given the actual recording.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212718193


https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/paul-ryan-keeps-it-family-kevin-mccarthy-russia-trump

https://crooksandliars.com/2019/11/eric-swalwell-drops-hammer-devin-nunes

[BigmanPigman]

18. Russia throws everything out there to see what sticks.

Eventually something/someone does.

[Kid Berwyn]

19. Craig Unger spelled it out.

American Kompromat

Unger is a veteran journalist and author of six books, including the New York Times bestsellers House of Bush, House of Saud, and House of Trump, House of Putin.

Unger writes that Trump was rescued multiple bankruptcies by millions in Russian cash laundered through his real estate in the 80s and 90s.

The grooming included an invitation to Russia by a high-level KGB official in 1987 under the guise of a preliminary scouting trip to build a Trump hotel in Moscow. Unger says the trip, was in fact ‘deep development’ by KGB handlers that furthered creating secret back channels and allowed the Russians to influence and damage American democracy, the author claims.

Source: https://www.wmnf.org/radioactivity-thursday-veteran-journalist-craig-unger-on-his-latest-book-american-kompromat/

Great C-SPAN discussion:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?508595-1/american-kompromat

[niyad]

21. What you probably read/heard was that the f'n, murdering orange TRAITOR** has

been a russian ASSET (not agent, he is not that smart). Chosen because he was rich, stupid, malleable, easily flattered and manipulated. I believe it is all laid out in documentary titled, "Active Measures."

[thenelm1]

23. That would seem the more likely scenario.

With a lot of flattery, floating some loans and promises of a hotel or two - they would have had him by the shorthairs and he would've been like a little puppy begging for more attention from his master. All the while being too stupid to understand that he was being played like a fine instrument.

[Generic Brad]

25. He's not the only one

Trump is clearly one of many.

[orangecrush]

27. In a word

Yes

[moondust]

31. Doubt it goes that far back.

Putin likely always knew that TFG was an incompetent narcissist who could never win an election for public office in the U.S. "Is that joke, comrade? Americanskis not THAT stupid."

Then came 2015 and the Kremlin's master manipulator saw the chance of a lifetime when TFG rode that gold escalator. An opportunity to help defeat that damn Hillary Clinton and put a dumb puppet in the White House! Wow! Let's get to work, comrades! Call that Manafort fool!

Maybe.

[The Wizard]

32. Good movie

The Siberian Candidate. Life imitates art. A cheesy second hand reality TV performance artist. The House and Senate have been infiltrated with performance artists who seem to be on the Putin payroll.

[SergeStorms]

34. Why waste the time, money....

and chance getting caught grooming and running an operative in the U.S. when you had a completely willing stooge who'd do just about anything to get one of his cheesy hotels in Red Square?

Trump was willing to kiss Putin's ass without Putin ever offering a dime. He was the most useful idiot in the complete history of useful idiots.

Trump would have offered the hand of Ivanka, his most prized posession, to Putin had he asked. There was absolutely no need to run Trump, he ran himself. Then Putin had no real ties when Trump became a liability. He could let him slip away into oblivion with no need for a polonium sandwich. No tidying up required.

Trump was a single use, disposable useful idiot.