U.S. Politics

[Royell Storing]

  Anyone that knows anything about the grocery industry Knows that the price of food in general does Not go down. (Other than "loss leaders" which are run in store adds for a very short term period). The absolute best outcome is the limiting of inflation/stabilizing food prices, vs wages increasing. This is what Trump accomplished in 2025. Lowering inflation vs increasing the "take home pay" of workers.   

[Sean Kneringer]

What happened to Richard Smith? He was a breath of fresh air around here.

[Tom Graves]

What happened to Richard Smith? He was a breath of fresh air around here.

You've got to be kidding.

[Steve Howsley]

What a giant baby of a President. 

[Tom Graves]

The following is a Substack article by Craig Unger, author of American Kompromat and House of Trump, House of Putin.

In June 2015, when Donald Trump famously descended the golden escalator (it was really brass) at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy, the media focused largely on his inflammatory insults about Mexican immigrants as drug dealers and rapists.

In fact, like an all-too-credulous audience falling for the misdirection of a magician, those who were present were missing the real story. Trump was putting together a presidential campaign that was doing everything the Russians wanted.

Indeed, just four months later, Trump did something that went almost completely unnoticed but which should have set off alarms throughout the entire national security establishment. On October 28, 2015, he signed a letter of intent to develop Trump Tower Moscow. Even though Trump repeatedly asserted that he had “no business” in Russia, the deal continued to be negotiated throughout his campaign.

The deal included a big upfront fee for Trump — $4 million, plus a percentage of sales—with no costs for him at all. But it also had one other condition in it that violated the most fundamental tenets of national security: it required Vladimir Putin’s approval.

And so, as he began his campaign for the presidency, Trump pursued a private campaign for highly remunerative deal with Russian developer Andrey Rozov to build a high-rise tower that would feature 250 luxury condos, a hotel, and an Ivanka Trump Spa.

All of which meant that as Trump’s presidential campaign got underway, Russian intelligence was able to develop a sophisticated, multi-pronged penetration of his campaign through Michael Cohen and Felix Sater, who helped with his business affairs; Paul Manafort, who became his campaign manager; foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos; and Michael Flynn who became Trump’s first national security adviser.

Even though the deal would be a clear violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution, if Trump won, his operatives thought it would help his chances. On November 3, 2015, less than a week after the letter of intent was signed, Felix Sater emailed Michael Cohen: “I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected...Buddy our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putin's team to buy in on this.”

Then, a month later, on December 10, 2015, Michael Flynn, who later became Trump’s first, but short-lived, National Security Adviser attended the tenth anniversary gala for RT, Russia’s state TV in Moscow. When it came time for dinner, Flynn was conveniently seated next to Vladimir Putin.

Meanwhile, Cohen and Sater greased the wheels of the proposed by Moscow Trump Tower development by suggesting they give Vladimir Putin a free $50 million penthouse in the proposed tower. “In Russia, the oligarchs would bend over backwards to live in the same building as Vladimir Putin,” Sater told Cohen.

Then, in January 2016, Cohen emailed Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov seeking assistance with the Trump Tower Moscow deal. The Kremlin confirmed receiving the email—but there was little follow up, so Sater arranged for Cohen to get an invitation to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, where he could meet Putin or Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Then, in March, foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos joined the Trump campaign, and, while traveling in Italy, met Joseph Mifsud, a London-based professor who “claimed to have substantial connections with Russian government officials."

Later that month, on March 19, the email account of John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, was successfully phished by the GRU (Russian military intelligence). Two days later, Trump named Papadopoulos as a foreign policy adviser to the campaign. Then, on March 24, Mifsud introduced Papadopoulos to a Russian woman who falsely claimed to be Putin’s niece. They discuss Clinton’s “dirt.”

Four days later, on March 28, Paul Manafort, who had spent a decade as an operative for a pro-Putin party in Ukraine, joined Trump’s entourage as campaign manager, hoping to do in the United States what he had already done for Putin in Ukraine—namely, install a pro-Putin president.

Now that he was playing a major role in Trump’s campaign, Manafort stayed in contact with his former deputy, Konstantin Kilimnik, who was later revealed to be a Russian intelligence officer. Through Kilimnik, Manafort offered to provide private briefings for Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch to whom Manafort allegedly owed almost $20 million. (Manafort’s lawyers have denied that this was the intent behind the emails, and dispute that Manafort owes Deripaska money.)

According to The Guardian, Manafort also visited Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in March 2015.

Both Manafort and Assange deny having met, and The Guardian’s report remains unconfirmed. Nevertheless, by late Spring 2016, all the pieces were in place. Trump clinched the Republican nomination in May — all while privately pursuing a prestigious and potentially enormously lucrative deal that required Vladimir Putin’s blessing. Meanwhile, Russian intelligence had completed a multi-pronged penetration of the Trump campaign that breached the future president’s business, political, foreign policy and national security operations.

More specifically, Russian operatives had acquired advance knowledge that Podesta’s stolen emails could be deployed as oppo research when necessary. At the same time, the Trump campaign’s messaging (anti-NATO, anti-immigrant, anti-trade deals) had become perfectly aligned with Russia’s strategic objectives.

Finally, on April 27, Trump gave a major foreign policy address at Washington's Mayflower Hotel sponsored by the Center for the National Interest (CNI). That Trump chose the Center was in itself of interest in that Putin, in 2013, referred to its director, Dimitri Simes as his “American friend and colleague.”

For his part, Simes had pledged his full support for Russia’s aggressive stand on Syria. Moreover, according to Yuri Shvets, a former major in the KGB who now lives in the United States, Simes was working for Russian intelligence. (I first reported this for American Kompromat in 2021. At the time Simes and the CNI declined to return multiple phone calls.)

By late spring 2016, all the pieces were in place. Trump’s campaign had assembled a team of high-level advisors with extensive—and compromising—Russian connections. The Moscow deal negotiations continued in secret. Russian intelligence had successfully hacked Democratic emails and offered them to the Trump campaign through Papadopoulos. And the campaign had shown it was willing to listen.

If your name was Vladimir Putin, you very well might ask, “What’s not to like?”

Cast of Characters

Michael Cohen: Trump’s longtime fixer working on Moscow deal while publicly denying Russia connections. Later sentenced to three years in prison for lying to Congress about the deal’s timeline.

Felix Sater: Russian-American developer with mob ties and history as FBI informant. Promised to deliver Putin’s support for both the tower and Trump’s candidacy.

Paul Manafort: Political operative with decade-long history working for Russian-aligned Ukrainian oligarchs. In debt to Oleg Deripaska for nearly $20 million.

George Papadopoulos: Young foreign policy advisor who became key conduit for Russian outreach about Clinton emails.

Michael Flynn: Former Defense Intelligence Agency director who developed compromising Russia connections, including $45,000 RT payment for Moscow gala.