Summary
Putin’s actions after Trump’s election, including a delayed congratulations and a denial of a phone call, suggest a lack of respect for Trump’s personal relationship with him.
Russia’s intelligence chief’s statement that Trump owes them favors for their support in his election, along with hints that he is expected to “pay back” certain obligations, amounts to a bold threat of blackmail.
Trump’s foreign policy, which favors a realignment with Russia, may be challenged by Putin’s actions and the revelation of Russian interference in the election.
Trump was never under the impression that anyone is his friend. All his relationships, including to his wife and biological children, are transactional.
Russia has dirt on him and has for a loooong time. That’s why Putin doesn’t need to suck his dick like the rest of the world’s wannabe dictators do.
I’m nearly certain it is true that Russia has dirt on him. But serious question: what possible dirt on trump could even slightly alter his base in the United States? I’m not convinced anything could. They could have videos of him raping an entire kindergarten class and his cult wouldn’t care. So at this point, what power does Putin actually hold? Trump (in theory) could tell Putin to fuck off and that would be the end of it.
I think it’s admiration and not blackmail that keeps trump sucking Putin’s dick. I think Trump looks at Russia and wishes he could have the same unchecked power that Putin has and so he looks up to him.
Gay sex tapes would do it. Not that I think there are any, but his base are homophobic enough to turn on him for that. Rape and pedophilia they can understand, accept, and support, but gay sex is where they would draw the line.
Sigh.
He’s already conditioned his base with fake pictures and videos of tons of stuff. He’s already convinced them to reject a reality they can see and hear and touch.
Putin could release that tape, DNA, and have the Pope and Joe Rogan personally attest to it’s authenticity and it wouldn’t matter.
Trump would say “deepfake” , fake news, radical left fabrication. His base would believe him. We’ve been living in a post-truth world for longer than most of us are willing to admit.
There is no kompromat that could shake his base.
I completely agree with the conditioning, but the crazier part is even if his base knew some horrible tapes were real, I don’t think they would care. It’s sunk cost fallacy at this point. There is nothing that will get people off the Trump train.
He simulated sucking someone’s dick at a recent rally, just before the election. Not sure that would be enough to phase them.
I don’t think it’s “compromat”. They just bankrolled his entire real estate empire since at least the 80’s. That creates a certain debt to be repaid.
It’s likely a bit of both. Trump has no issue not paying his debts and several entities that have done business with him have gone under because of that.
Russia has to have something on him for him to consider not blowing them off. It’s likely it could be as simple as him considering them a formidable enemy. They could cause problems for him and his family, potentially the foreign assets of his company, etc. They’re not a small bank or drywall company to be messed with.
Seriously great question at this point. In 2016 it was commonly accepted knowledge that if Putin released a video of Trump getting pissed on by a woman in a Moscow hotel, that would be the end of his political career.
Since then, he’s been found to be a rapist in court, has attempted to overthrow the government, and has been found guilty of about 3 dozen felonies with more charges pending - which doesn’t matter any way since Trump’s judges have granted him legal immunity to anything he wants to do. And he was just convincingly reelected with his party winning both the House and Senate.
At the point, Putin could put out a video of him personally pegging Trump, and it would make no difference.
There are photos of him hanging with Epstein.
Ghislaine Maxwell said in court that he frequented Epstein’s Manhattan mansion, where she would introduce him to her friends and acquaintances.
If there was anything to that, and the KGB had some media to support that fact. Certainly, some decent part of his base is unshakable, but not the whole base. It would have to be some pretty gross crap, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near impossible.
I dunno. The human part of me wants to believe that there would be something that would be to much for his base to stomach. But the pessimist in me that’s still processing last week’s election makes me think there could be a video of Trump and Epstein raping a 13 year old and his base wouldn’t give a shit.
The pee tapes might be weird enough for Trump to want to keep them hidden, if they exist.
They probably do, but:
I think it’s proof of his wife’s infidelity. That would make him a ‘cuck’ and the only bigger sin than that in his world is being a liberal.
Yeah when the Epstein tapes dropped and Epstein talked about how Trump liked to fuck his “friends’” wives behind their backs, I knew it was just gonna make him more popular. That’s seen as an alpha chad move, despite being utterly gross.
I don’t think Trump is capable of admiration, and I also don’t think it’s dirt keeping him in check.
It might simply be that Trump is that stupid. The parallels between descriptions of Trump and Hitler are striking as well.
If Trump doesn’t respond to the international humiliation it will be intentional, otherwise if he got his way with the Unitary Executive Power, then he’d just glass Russia and be free from that chain (while probably getting lots of us killed).
The only thing we know for certain is Russian propaganda is rarely intended for Western audiences.