Donald Trump’s ties to Russia: The former US president’s connections with Putin and the Kremlin

Former president Donald Trump has come under fire from Democrats in recent days after saying that he would allow Russian Presidnet Vladimir Putin to invade NATO members without any repercussions if they had not paid their NATO dues.

In early February, he held a rally, and when talking about NATO, he described the alliance as “busted until [he] came along.” And what is the punishment for countries that do not pay during his possible second term as president? No NATO Article 5 protection, going so far as to say he would tell the Russian president to do “whatever the hell they want.” Trump said that the NATO alliance members were dumbfounded that he would say such a thing and then reiterated the fact that members of the defensive alliance “got to pay [their] bills.”

This has many Democrats restarting their “Russia-Gate” narrative, which has been discredited but remains a potent political weapon with their base. The theory that Russia had interfered in significant ways in the 2016 election to bolster the chances that Donald Trump would win was, in part, according to independent journalist Aaron Maté, a way for the Democratic party to shirk the loss. Rather than the candidate, the campaign, and the overall electoral strategy of the Democrats being wrong in 2016, Russiagate became a way to shift blame and level severe allegations of corruption against Donald Trump to undermine the legitimacy of his win.

Russiagate and the Steele Dossier

Before Donald Trump took office, the release of the Steele Dossier, published by Buzz Feed on 10 January 2017, presented evidence in the form of reports produced or paid for by the Democratic National Committee that high-level connections existed between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign. The dossier was put together by a British intelligence officer by the name of Christopher David Steele, and upon its publication, Democratic leaders and anti-Trump media outlets ran with it. However, investigations carried out by the FBI and corporate and independent media have been able to disprove a few of the allegations and raise doubts about many others included in the trove of documents.

Additionally, the notion that the Kremlin, directed by President Putin, was interested in cultivating Trump and those around him is not as groundbreaking as many Democratic leaders might think. Another question is how successful the Russian government was in its conversations and relationship-building with Trump, his campaign, and his administration. Clearly, the former president’s comments that Russia could invade NATO allies with no security guarantees from the US show some sympathy for Russia that could prove incredibly destabilizing and violent.

Russiagate and its embrace by Democrats, the FBI, and the media did a disservice to the public, argues Maté. Without a critical lens, the information was and continues to be presented as fact in some cases. It muddies the very concerning place of prestige Donald Trump holds for Vladimir Putin. Instead of the relationship being formed based on personal interest in the approval or power of the other and a shared worldview that applauds strong men, Russiagate wove an elaborate story that the GOP can use to dismiss any allegations of corruption or impropriety that could exist between Trump and the Kremlin. Many questions have also been raised about the relationship between members of the Trump family and the Saudi regime headed up by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Two years after leaving the White House, the former president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who played a critical role as an intermediary with the government of Saudi Arabia and the administration during Trump’s tenure, secured a $2 billion investment from the crown prince. Interestingly, this fact that has been public for two years never seems to be included in the attacks lodged by Democrats against Donald Trump, highlighting how Russiagate serves as a political purpose rather than as a moral issue about the interference and corruption that can take place between high-level officials in the US government and officials and business leaders from abroad.