During Trump’s childhood, the family lived in Queens and then in Brooklyn Boroughs of New York City. Trump finished college in 1968, and not long afterward joined his father in his local real estate business which then became the Trump Organization. By the late 1980’s to early 1990’s, “two Trump-owned companies filed for bankruptcy: the Trump Taj Mahal in 1991 and the Trump Plaza Hotel in 1992. An unflattering biography of Donald Trump, published in 1993, was titled Lost Tycoon and declared that he has become a “public laughingstock” in the wake of his business failures.” (UVA/The Miller Center “DONALD TRUMP: LIFE BEFORE THE PRESIDENCY, By Benjamin C. Waterhouse) These “failures” eventually included six bankruptcies - a strong signal to Russians that this man needs and craves money.
The Russians didn’t laugh at him and in fact, found him to be an ideal candidate for American Komromat - someone who could be easily cultivated, caught/photographed with his pants down, bribed with money, and used/misused by the KGB. His ties to the Russian mafia go back three decades, but today this relationship likely grew from buying TVs for his many hotel rooms to “yet to be proved” selling TOP SECRET USG documents.
“On November 9, 2016, just a few minutes after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, a man named Vyacheslav Nikonov approached a microphone in the Russian State Duma (their equivalent of the US House of Representatives) and made a very unusual statement. ‘Dear friends, respected colleagues!” Nikonov said. “Three minutes ago, Hillary Clinton admitted her defeat in US presidential elections, and a second ago Trump started his speech as an elected president of the United States of America, and I congratulate YOU on this’.” (Journalist Craig Unger talks about Russia, Trump, and “one of the greatest intelligence operations in history.” VOX Politics, by Sean Illing, January 12, 2019.)
Far removed from mid and rural America (red states), “Russian organized crime has been active in New York City's Brighton Beach since the 1970s. The insular community, which is located near Coney Island, has a large Russian immigrant population, and has produced notorious crime bosses such as Evsei Agron, Vyacheslav Ivankov, and Marat Balagula - to name a few.” (Google search)
He married Ivana and made his first trip to Russia in 1987. From that time, Trump was a target for entrapment and enlistment in the KGB/FSB. When Nikonov congratulated the Russian DUMA for Trump’s win of the U.S. presidency, the Russians were celebrating “one of the greatest intelligence and clandestine operations in modern history. The Russian KGB had trapped, skillfully developed, and maneuvered a Russian “asset” into the highest political position in the United States - President Donald Trump.” (Unger, American Kompromat)
A New York Times bestselling author - Craig Unger - wrote two books on this subject: House of Trump, House of Putin and American Kompromat. Much of the material and research for From Democracy to Democrazy came from Unger, but were also a written rendition of my 20 years living and working in dictator-led countries - mostly Russia, and directly dealing with such men and women. It took me several years to adjust from living in a free society to living in a mafia-type of controlled government. Today the head of this completely corrupt society is Vladimir Putin - and no one worldwide dares to cross him.
The American public, TV news commentators, Trumpers, and Maga people - all ignore this crucial danger unfolding in the United States. The 2-year, $32 million dollar Mueller Report was labeled a hoax due to William Barr’s unexplainable actions. His interference needs to be investigated. This report was NOT a hoax but a carefully researched and an impressive attempt to gather all facts and evidence regarding Trump’s relationship to the Russian mafia/KGB. It presents a terrifying depiction of “the pure evil of those who Trump chose to do business with.” (Ibid) It also explains Trump’s treasonous relationship with Russia. The shadow cast by Putin over the landscape of American democracy, and his influence and control over Trump grows larger and darker by the moment. You and I have no influence over Putin, but our collective votes in this upcoming election are the essential, vital, and interpretative movement to save our democracy.
Elizabeth Graham
www.democrazy2020.org
In a presently more minor way, across the pond we confront the same problem in the person of Trump’s friend Nigel Farage, who was a leading figure in the Brexit campaign and who now heads a political party that has a small foothold in U.K. Parliament thanks to yesterday’s General Election. He looks longingly across the Channel to see what Le Pen is doing and she in turn looks towards the US. And what they all have in common is Russia, they are just at different stages of the process.
Unless somehow we can stop them.
"I have seen the enemy and it is us." The Russian infiltration of our body politic is rarely discussed. Where are the "muckrakers", the journalist sleuths who exposed things like Watergate and taught the public about nightmarish working conditions?
As you have so well explained, it's all there in broad daylight. Our press has gone blind and numb.