By now everyone knows that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have a sweet little bromance going. They admire each other, they compliment each other, they are two egomaniacal peas in one shiny pod.
There is increasing evidence that it was Russia who hacked into the emails of the DNC. This points to a more sinister problem caused by Trump’s friendship with Putin, because it certainly looks like Putin has taken direct action to put his comrade into the Oval Office.
Where does all this mutual love come from? As usual in the case of politics, and as always in the case of Trump, the answer is simple. Follow the money.
Talking Points Memo (TPM) is reporting that Donald Trump and Putin’s friendly oligarchs have been doing all kinds of business together. Russian investors have been buying Trump properties around the globe, according to the article. There are Russian investors behind the Trump SoHo Project, for example.
One quote for the piece came from Donald Trump, Jr., who talked to a real estate convention about the Russian connection in 2008. He said:
“Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
The Trump family and its representatives have made many trips to Russia, seeking business opportunities, running beauty pageants, and rubbing elbows with Russia’s wealthy elite.
That beauty pageant is a perfect example of Trump’s reliance on Russian money. It was in 2013, not very long ago, when Trump made a connection to Aras Agalarov, who could easily be described as Russia’s Donald Trump. The two men shared a vision of building luxurious estates, hotels and shopping malls in Russia. A lot of money changed hands. The pageant went to Moscow.
Far more frightening that the friendship of two rich playboys, though, is the fact that Donald Trump has hired Paul Manafort to run his campaign.
Paul Manafort has direct and long standing business ties to Russia, and to the pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine. He has worked as an advisor and consultant to people like Rinat Akhmetov, who was a key supporter of pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine.
There isn’t enough time or space here to explain the whole intricate web of financial connections between Trump and Putin’s wealthy allies. You should read each of the links if you want to see just how deeply corrupt this relationship is.
I’d like to sum it all up, though.
Donald Trump needs Russian money. He needs to oligarchs to keep his businesses afloat here in the U.S. and to help him spread into Europe.
Donald Trump hired Paul Manafort as his campaign manager. Manafort spent the years before this job advising pro-Russian businessmen on how to take advantage of the bounty of the Ukraine.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin admire and support each other.
I don’t mean to be throwing us back to the Cold War or anything, but I can’t understand how this information has failed to become the lead story on every media outlet in this country.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin ARE working together.
Please click the links and read the stories to know that I am not making this sh*t up. Please watch this video to learn more about Paul Manafort.
Featured image by yolanda.white84 via Flickr. Available through Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Generic 2.0 License.
