Why Is Trump Bending Over For Putin?

What if Putin owns Trump? Deconstructing the American government. For Putin. From campaigning to destroy NATO to selling out Ukraine this week to demolishing the free world’s confidence in America’s ability to keep top secret information confidential, Trump’s goal appears to be, to paraphrase Ron DeSantis, to “Make America Russia.” MORE FROM THOM 📃 Thom's Hartmann's 'Daily Take' Newsletter: https://HartmannReport.com 🎦 Watch a full program re-run anytime: https://www.patreon.com/thomhartmann 🎧 Audio Podcast: https://thom.tv FOLLOW THOM 📕 AMAZON: https://amzn.to/2hS4UwY 📝 DAILY TAKE: https://hartmannreport.com 👥 FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/ThomHartmannProgram/ 📸 INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/Thom_Hartmann 🎦 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/thomhartmann 🐦 X: https://www.twitter.com/thom_hartmann Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hartmannreport.com 🌐 WEBSITE: https://www.thomhartmann.com 📺 YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=thomhartmann 👕 Merchandise: https://teespring.com/stores/thom-hartmann-program-2 🍺 Thom Merchandise: https://teespring.com/thom-hartmann-mug?pid=522&cid=101870 ABOUT THE PROGRAM The Thom Hartmann Program is the leading progressive political talk radio show for political news and comments about Government politics, be it Liberal or Conservative, plus special guests and callers. #MoreFromThom #Putin #Ukraine ✔ Amazon links are affiliate links TRANSCRIPT Does Putin own Trump? (Today's Hartmann Report) It's fairly long because I have all these examples from the Mueller report—the hundreds of contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia back in 2016, the fact that Paul Manafort ran Trump's campaign, and he was a guy who worked for Putin or Putin's oligarchs. The lies about Russian contacts that Mike Flynn told the FBI just go on and on, along with the money laundering, the money Trump was taking from Russian oligarchs. I can't come up with an explanation for what Trump is doing to Ukraine right now—or, frankly, what he is doing to the United States of America with Elon Musk—that makes more sense than the idea that Trump, Putin, and Musk hate America and want to destroy this country and our democracy. I get that these guys are greedy billionaires, motivated by money, trying to rip us all off. Democrats should certainly raise hell with that message, and Mark Pocan is absolutely right—everybody needs to be calling their Republican representatives and saying, "How dare you plan to vote next week to give another $4 trillion tax break to billionaires while cutting services for average working people across America?" I completely agree with that. We need to do that. But I think this is much larger. I think Vladimir Putin owns Donald Trump. I think Russia has owned Trump since the '80s—or at least he’s been Russia-adjacent since then. I think he’s been in Putin's orbit probably since his first beauty pageant over there, where, according to the Steele dossier—who knows—he was hiring a couple of hookers to pee on the bed where Barack and Michelle Obama slept. I doubt it's a pee tape, frankly. My guess is it has more to do with tens or maybe even hundreds of millions of dollars that Russian oligarchs laundered through Trump properties. Real estate is the number one way dirty money gets laundered these days, particularly oligarch money. I also think Putin owns Trump because he helped him get elected in 2016 and reminds him of that at every opportunity. "You're my man. I made you. And you wouldn't want me to release the files on how we helped you become president—you know, what a traitor you are—would you?" "Oh no, sir, oh no, no—yes, I'll screw Ukraine on your behalf!" Trump came out just a few hours ago and called Zelensky a dictator, saying he was ruling without elections and implying he was never elected. The guy was elected in a free and fair election, and then his country was invaded. Does Putin own Trump? I think so. And I think we need to be looking into this. I would like to see our media start asking that question. I don't know if you caught Rachel Maddow last night, but every time Putin comes up as a topic, Trump starts stuttering, looking away, and freaking out.