That's the big take-away from a piece by Sean Illing at Vox, talking about Craig Under's new book House of Trump, House of Putin.
I’ll ask you straightforwardly: Do you believe the Russian government successfully targeted and compromised Trump?
Craig Unger:
Yes, absolutely. But let’s go back in time, because I think all of this began as a money-laundering operation with the Russian mafia. It’s well known that Trump likes doing business with gangsters, in part because they pay top dollar and loan money when traditional banks won’t, so it was a win-win for both sides.
The key point I want to get across in the book is that the Russian mafia is different than the American mafia, and I think a lot of Americans don’t understand this. In Russia, the mafia is essentially a state actor. When I interviewed Gen. Oleg Kalugin, who is a former head of counterintelligence in the KGB and had been Vladimir Putin’s boss at one point, I asked him about the mafia. He said, “Oh, it’s part of the KGB. It’s part of the Russian government.”
And that’s essential to the whole premise of the book. Trump was working with the Russian mafia for more than 30 years. He was profiting from them. They rescued him. They bailed him out. They took him from being $4 billion in debt to becoming a multibillionaire again, and they fueled his political ambitions, starting more than 30 years ago. This means Trump was in bed with the Kremlin as well, whether he knew it or not.
Yes, absolutely. But let’s go back in time, because I think all of this began as a money-laundering operation with the Russian mafia. It’s well known that Trump likes doing business with gangsters, in part because they pay top dollar and loan money when traditional banks won’t, so it was a win-win for both sides.
The key point I want to get across in the book is that the Russian mafia is different than the American mafia, and I think a lot of Americans don’t understand this. In Russia, the mafia is essentially a state actor. When I interviewed Gen. Oleg Kalugin, who is a former head of counterintelligence in the KGB and had been Vladimir Putin’s boss at one point, I asked him about the mafia. He said, “Oh, it’s part of the KGB. It’s part of the Russian government.”
And that’s essential to the whole premise of the book. Trump was working with the Russian mafia for more than 30 years. He was profiting from them. They rescued him. They bailed him out. They took him from being $4 billion in debt to becoming a multibillionaire again, and they fueled his political ambitions, starting more than 30 years ago. This means Trump was in bed with the Kremlin as well, whether he knew it or not.
- and -
Sean Illing:
Okay, to play devil’s advocate, can we say definitively that Trump knew who he was dealing with or what he was getting into? Or did he just naively have his hands out?
Craig Unger:
Look, I can’t prove what was in Trump’s head, or what he knew or when he knew it. But I document something like 1,300 transactions of this kind with Russian mobsters. By that, I mean real estate transactions that were all cash purchases made by anonymous shell companies that were quite obviously fronts for criminal money-laundering operations. And this represents a huge chunk of Trump’s real estate activity in the United States, so it’s quite hard to argue that he had no idea what was going on.
Americans have been taught that the rich guys are all really smart and hard-working and pretty honest about most things - honest enough anyway - and willing to "tell it like it is".
(In case you've missed it, 45* puts that shit right out front every chance he gets)
And while these "captains of industry" can be ruthless and calculating and petty enough to fuck everybody over trying to boost their quarterly dividends by a few extra pennies, we're mostly convinced that at least they're on our side when it comes to national unity and loyalty to the USofA.
We are being rather abruptly disabused of this dangerous misperception - finally.
Americans have been taught that the rich guys are all really smart and hard-working and pretty honest about most things - honest enough anyway - and willing to "tell it like it is".
(In case you've missed it, 45* puts that shit right out front every chance he gets)
And while these "captains of industry" can be ruthless and calculating and petty enough to fuck everybody over trying to boost their quarterly dividends by a few extra pennies, we're mostly convinced that at least they're on our side when it comes to national unity and loyalty to the USofA.
We are being rather abruptly disabused of this dangerous misperception - finally.
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