To those who believe that Putin "has something" on Trump...

[brooklynite]

Blackmail compels obedience; it doesn't compel enthusiasm. Trump is clearly enamored of the autocrats he runs into.

[fleur-de-lisa]

1. Both can be true, and probably are.

[PatSeg]

8. Oh yes, I agree

Trump is besotted with strong men and dictators, but I also believe Putin has a lot on him, probably a combination of scandal(s) and financial debt. Putin's favorite patsy! Who knew it could be so easy?

[Eyeball_Kid]

2. IMO, Putin gave Trumpy-Boy a Loyalty Test.

Putin: you will do what I tell you. To prove your loyalty to ME, I'm going to kill your soldiers one by one and YOU are to keep your mouth shut and do nothing. If you're a good little boy, I won't emasculate you in front of the world and ruin your chances for re-election.

Trump: crickets.

[lagomorph777]

3. +1 Just like Helsinki, and just like making the Russiapublican Senators come to Moscow on July 4th

[Whiskeytide]

4. He wants to be in their club. n/t

[Zoonart]

5. M.O.N.E.Y.

[Doodley]

6. I think Trump was brainwashed. He's the manchurian candidate.

[The Magistrate]

7. True, Sir --- He Just Wants To Play With The Big Kids

He reminds me of the hanger-on, Schwimmer, who liked the company of those gangsters at the garage, and went up against the wall with them on St. Valentine's day....

[blogslut]

9. He's an actual gangster

He's been laundering money for Russian Mobsters for 30 years.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. Trump loves autocrats because he wants to be one.

That Putin owns him is just bidness; he's glad to do Putin's bidding because it means he's a member of that club.

[Lucinda]

11. He cheerleads for anyone who he thinks likes and helps him

I suspect he's the type to admire someone who can best him

[jcgoldie]

12. I don't think he "has something on Trump"

...not information. Trump thinks all publicity is good anyway as long as they are talking about you. I think he controls his debt. He could put the fucker in the poor house

[empedocles]

16. . . . could put trump into the Big House

[dalton99a]

13. Kick

https://democraticunderground.com/100213676731

[Quixote1818]

14. I think Trump may just be scared of Putin. Trump is a bully and they go after people they think they

can bully around. For Trump it's women he yells at. I think Trump is scared of all dictators.

[njhoneybadger]

15. Yes I do believe Putin has a video of trump porking a 13 year old Ivanka look alike

And probably Epstein had a copy too. I'm crazy

[world wide wally]

17. $$$$$$$$$$$$

It's always that with Trump

[bluestarone]

18. Putin was just waiting for this MOMENT!!

Putin owns the white-house, half of our congress, and we will find out soon about the Supreme court!

[Enoki33]

19. It likely is a combination of money and ideology. Putin juggles

those two masterfully in a sick , evil mind. We plainly see the results.

[llashram]

20. Putin was KGB

trumps mind is no match for the evil in Putin's mind. Trump is in kindergarten compared to Putin.

[cyberswede]

21. He's in kahoots with Putin and Russian oligarchs, among others

I agree that Trump has way too much adoration for autocrats - presumably because he thinks he should be the recipient of the same blind allegiance demanded by dictators.

Also, in the case of Putin, Trump has been groomed as an asset for years, including Putin knowing exactly how to play to his narcissism and greed.

Check out Sarah Kendzior's book "Hiding in Plain Sight"

Here's an excerpt from s review of it:

And since 2016, her single-minded focus has been bringing to light the depth and reach of Trump’s connections to a sprawling network of kleptocrats, billionaires, propagandists, fixers, and strong-armers that Kendzior calls “a transnational crime syndicate masquerading as a government.”

Her new book, Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America, connects these dots and then some. It’s not simply a book about Trump, but an indictment of the myth of American exceptionalism that made his ascendency possible. The paranoia birthed by Richard Nixon and Watergate; the ruthless venality in which Trump was schooled by his early mentor Roy Cohn; the creation of a television network explicitly engineered to churn out a boundless supply of profitable fear and fury.

(https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/sarah-kendzior-hiding-in-plain-sight-interview)

And a Kendzior quote from a Vogue interview:

"But more to the point, he has backers, and those backers have their own agenda, ranging from the transnational and kleptocratic Russian mafia to the Kremlin itself, which wants to get rid of sanctions, to various American plutocrats like Mitch McConnell, who use Trump to their advantage—to stack the federal courts with right-wing judges, among other things—to white supremacists like Stephen Miller."

(https://www.vogue.com/article/sarah-kendzior-interview-hiding-in-plain-sight-donald-trump)

I can't recommend this book enough. It's a riveting, fast read.



https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250245397

"[Kendzior's] book documents Trump's 'decades-long erosion of American stability, integrity, and democracy.' I recommend it, especially if you have any doubt about what's at stake in this year's presidential election."
—Connie Schultz, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and author of forthcoming novel The Daughters of Erietown

"Sarah Kendzior, in her brilliant new book, is one of the few journalists who grasps what is happening. Kendzior is a student of autocracy... she has been warning from the get-go that Trump is working to turn America into one."
—David Cay Johnston, New York Times bestselling author of It's Even Worse Than You Think and Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist