It's getting bad. Really bad. But, it's still tough to believe Russia "owns" him...

[TreasonousBastard]

All his life, he's gone down bragging without a seeming care in the world. Remember how he took down an entire football league that he started, and none of the other owners could stop him? All over his bright idea to change seasons.

He blew it with Trump Air, not listening to people who knew how to run an airline. He blew it with the Plaza Hotel, not listening to partners who tried to tell him how to run a landmark hotel. He tried to get NBC to move to his Upper West Side project, and never understood they were playing him to get a better deal on their Rock Center lease renewals.

His entire life has been bucking solid trends and advice with hubris, lies and bullshit, all ending up in failure.

So, what could Putin possibly have on him that would cause him to act this way? Even if Russian oligarchs are the source of his financing, or there actually are pee tapes, it's tough to believe that he wouldn't just bullshit his way out of those, too.

Personally, I tend to think that he's just an ignorant bully who's been lucky for years pushing his weight around because he was never actually important enough to deal with before.

[triron]

1. Are you kidding or what?

[arthritisR_US]

9. Thank you, that was my same thought.

[Callado119]

2. No..

No, it’s not tough to believe

[JI7]

3. it's not tough to believe at all. his businesses failed because he is a failure as a business person

russia bailed him out .

[TreasonousBastard]

4. That is my point. His bankruptcies were bailed out by his family and screwed investors...

It was only after the last one when he couldn't get financing from the usual sources that DeutscheBank stepped in, probably laundering rubles.

He is, quite frankly, an idiot, perhaps an unusually clever idiot, but I really don't think he has the brains or temperament to be a proper stooge.

He is, of course, also a coward, like many bullies are at heart, so he may simply fear Putin yelling "Boo". He may also simply refuse to admit he needed help. His ego hasn't allowed him to admit how the "loans" from his father, sister and other family members got him out of trouble, so why would he admit Putin helped him out...

[brush]

5. Nah, too much evidence of Russian contacts not to believe the obvious.

290 some counts, 7 convictions, 4 jail terms. Do not tell me with all that going around him that trump knew nothing.

And that's what we know. Mueller knows tons more.

I agree that he's a bumbling, dumb ass businessbully whose dumb luck, and Russian money (there's another Russian connection), and "The Apprentice" TV show kept and revived his cratering business and image after his colossal failings in AC —it takes real talent I tell ya to fail at running casinos, but to ignore what's so apparent with all the Russia links—nah, he's guilty as sin.

He's what Malcolm Nance calls a "willing asset". He knows who's calling the shots and goes along with it anyway as it benefits him. Hell, it helped him gain the White House, and let's remember, the Russians were to some degree deceived by the image of trump as well with the TV show, the hotels, beauty pageants, the airplanes, just as many voters were. They thought he was smarter than he is and they could game our system clandestinely with him for years to lift sanctions and look the other way when they pulled their shit in the Ukraine and Syria and wherever else they pleased.

And they, just as trump did, underestimated our intel and investigative system and how it works. The old saying, "it grinds slowly but exceedingly fine", is becoming apparent as Mueller, the FBI. the print media finally, and the Congressional House committees soon, are closing in on the orange pustule whose dumb luck has finally run out.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. I don't for a second deny that he has Russian contacts, or even that he...

admires them.

Note his affinity for strongmen around the planet. North Korea, Philippines, Turkey, Brazil... (Curiously, not any in Africa)

Putin is his ideal leader. I think more than accept "orders" from Putin, their interests intersect and Putin merely has to suggest things, if even that.

[AlexSFCA]

6. is that a joke?

or a severly uninformed post. Watch documentary ‘Active Measures’ for some factual background. Trump has been working with putin’s people for over a decade. While it is mostly Putin, it is also a global issue with other parties involved including Saudi. And it’s not just the US, the goal is to reshape the world in which Russia is a dominant and controlling power in Europe, Saudi controls middle east and USA becomes oligarchy no longer a classic democracy. Trump has done unprecedented job achieving this; I am sure he exceeded all putin’s expectations. Trump is actively destroying major democratic institutions in the US while maintaning insane level of support like 40%. Certainly a dummy would be in prison by now with his entire family. There are few people in the world who are as skilled in global political technologies as Putin. Nothing is off the charts, events even larger than 9/11 are no longer impossible and they tend to reshape the country rapidly. We are about to enter the most dangerous period in US history. They will stop at nothing to continue with their plans because they no longer have a choice as their dealings are being exposed. It’s up to us, public at large, to find ways to erode trump’s support among his base.
The most annoying to me is when news outlets bring watergate and thus create a false equivalence. Totally different magnitude because what we are experiencing right now never happened to us before.

[TreasonousBastard]

8. Not a joke. Trump's only success is at surviving failure...

I don't believe he can be controlled, but he can be bought off, to an extent.

Failure has always been his bailiwick-- it's almost as if he's afraid of success because it would make him responsible, and he might have to actually work. As long as he can survive failure, he's better off.

We have been dealing with expert Russian propaganda since the Soviet days and it's not that much worse now. What is worse is that we no longer have central Federal authority to expose it. As much as I despised J. Edgar when he was running things, he did manage to keep an eye on the Soviets and set the stage for Reagan to deal with Gorby. Sort of.

And Trump, as long as he still isn't accepted by the adults in the room, he'll seek acceptance from the brats he hangs out with.

[AlexSFCA]

10. propaganda is much worse now due to the internet

and much bigger media landscape than in ‘soviet days’. T trump wouldn’t have been elected without internet.

[tblue37]

23. Trump's helpless look and demeanor after his 2 hours with Putin in Helsinki indicate

that he was being controlled.

[arthritisR_US]

11. Your response is no joke but the OP sure seems to be.

[brush]

20. Yes, unprecedented danger to the country, and trump is up to his neck in it.

I don't get, especially here on DU, those who seem to excuse trump as just a bumbler who lucked into the WH and was not really aware of what the Russians/Putin were doing.

[wasupaloopa]

12. You seem to be supporting trump's position. Most posters who agree with

the majority here do not respond to every reply to their OP.

[lindysalsagal]

13. Various ex-state workers have explained the way compromat works: You don't sign a contract,

They don't ask you outright if you're on board: It happens in little ways that are all dismissable. They're good at it. You're working in the same direction as them without even knowing it. They look for the vulnerable and just happen to be there when you need them and before you know it, you're dependent.

So, while he's not on ussr payroll, he is not able to work on the behalf of the usa: He's just not.

[TreasonousBastard]

16. That's closer to what I'm getting at...

Rather than being an "employee" as many seem to want to believe, he's more of the "useful idiot".

Putin & Co. give him the acceptance and praise he needs, with no pushback. His natural reaction to this ass-kissing is to like the ass-kisser.

[brush]

22. More than a useful idiot. See Malcolm Nance's parsing of complicity below.

First there are useful idiots whose own interests align with a foreign power's.

Then there are fellow travelers whose ideological interests align with the foreign power's.

There are also unwitting assets who are aware other forces may be affected by their complicity but don't care.

Witting assets are next on the hierarchy and they are well aware of who is pulling the strings and accept it.

And finally there are agents who have a contract working with a foreign power as a spy.

Trump falls into the last two categories, as I said in my earlier response, a willing asset.

[uponit7771]

14. He's admitted to working ... WITH... them while they were attacking America. It's not a great leap

... to think he was working for them

[KG]

15. they've kept him afloat financially for decades

[BootinUp]

17. Read this. From TPM

What We Know About The 5 Meetings Between Trump And Putin

It’s not short, but not filled with crap either. It pieces things together quite well.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/what-we-know-trump-putin-meetings

[anarch]

18. bear in mind, the Russians had been grooming him for something like 30 years

prior to the 2016 stolen election. That's a long time for them to insinuate themselves in his very though patterns, such that he thinks these pro-Russia moves that he makes are his own ideas, or at the very least that they are coming from trusted and long-time friends. They are literally experts at manipulating people.

[dansolo]

19. They gave him money when he needed it

And they probably have promised him a lot more. Why is it tough to believe? He is a greedy MFer.

[Vinca]

21. Vlad doesn't bullshit. Vlad has you lose your balance on a high building.

Don will gift wrap this country and send it to him if it keeps his orange ass safe.