There’s some palace intrigue accompanying this “last minute” inclusion of Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff into the negotiations between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. If or when we will ever find out about the details is anybody’s guess. But common sense and Occam’s Razor suggest simply that Trump was talking his usual crazy, uninformed and fact free bluster and somebody (probably Susie Wiles) began persuading him to have reinforcements at his side. I’m sure it was touch and go for a while and then Trump finally acknowledged that he could use some help.
And you want to know why? Because he’s lazy and stupid above all else. Once it was explained to him that he needed to discuss details of 1. the war; 2. minerals; 3. NATO; 4. European relations; 5. Nordstream and energy, and a myriad of other topics, Trump realized he couldn’t hold even a bullet point list in his head for five minutes without great strain to his tiny mind and he agreed to have “help” defined herein as supporting players to make the king look good.
And I’m equally certain that it was presented to him in a servile fashion, to win him over. “Let us present the charts, Mr. President and recite all the dull and mundane details. You’re far too busy pondering the clever ways in which you will outwit Mr. Putin. Let us do the scut work for you, Sir, so that you can concentrate on being brilliant, as you assuredly will be.” As a matter of fact, I would bet my bottom dollar that that’s a reasonably close paraphrase of what was said to Trump. He’s a megalomanic and talking to him about “duty” or “consequences” or “fallout” or any of that is going to bounce off like oil on Teflon. But to talk about enabling his brilliance, his performance, oh yes, speak of that, that does Donald long to hear.
So blessedly, there will some adults present in the talks with Putin, so that Donald doesn’t give Alaska back to Russia. And he might have been on the verge of doing something that insane. Trump is cowed and petrified by Putin. That has always been the case. And the fact is that we don’t know and never have known what kind of kompramat Putin has on Trump.
Yes, we’ve heard of the pee tape but in all truth I think it goes way beyond some salacious fling with a few prostitutes. That’s lightweight for a civilly adjudicated rapist and a known pedophile. I would venture to say that there is financially damaging information that would make Trump blush and cringe if it was revealed. Trump loves above all else to present himself as a wealthy big shot. If, for example, Putin bailed him out financially at a time when he was seriously overextended and going to have the Trump Organization fall down around his ears and on the verge of ruination, that would be an inducement to do anything for Putin so he would not reveal Trump’s shame.
And Putin may have a lot of dirt on other Republicans as well. It’s been speculated that Putin has kompromat on Lindsey Graham and that explains his 180 degree reversal on Trump since 2015.
And these facts may well be known to insiders like Susie Wiles and Marco Rubio. I doubt seriously if Steve Witkoff knows that level of tawdry detail — although Putin may have shared something with him just so Witkoff knows who’s the boss. That would be in keeping with Putin.
None of what I’ve speculated about here is too far off the mark. How do I know that? Because Trump is predictable as hell. He always has been. And so is Putin, to a large degree, although Putin is by far the intellectually superior of the two. (Not that that’s a high bar to cross.) We know the following with certainty:
- Trump is terrified of Putin;
- Putin prides himself on his knowledge of Russian history and his desire to see the Russian empire of yore not only restored but greatly expanded;
- Trump knows nothing of any history nor does he care about any time before he was alive because what possibly could have happened that was meaningful if it didn’t revolve around him?
- Trump hates real world detail and real world work. Even when he worked on The Apprentice, which was basically centered on his fake persona, he couldn’t even keep that together for too long on any given day. Ask the editors who culled through take after take to find some way to present him acceptably;
- Trump has never been suited to the job of president, but he’s far more imparied now than the first go round. He’s basically the face of the presidency but the actual work is being done by Rubio, Witkoff, Bessent, Miller, Noem, and may God help us, Lutnick.
Wait and see if this isn’t all corroborated at some point in time. the only question is when, not if, and Trump world is filled with leaks. It always has been. Trump is more demented than ever and there is no way he could have met with Putin one on one without it being catastrophic. At least now this fact is being acknowledged tacitly, if not openly. This is actually good news. In all candor, the only way America is going to survive at all is if other Republicans in this administration carry the ball, because Trump is mentally shot.
trump couldn’t walk a straight line down the red carpet. He looked drunk, but more likely it’s neurosyphilis affecting his inner ear. One of my family died of this disease and trump appears to have all the symptoms: dementia, delusions, rages, tabes dorsalis gate, hearing loss, vertigo, and heart failure. He’s likely losing his eyesight, which is why aides have to read his EOs. Two years max.
My take on the alleged Kompromat Putin holds over Trump is that it involves sexual activity, but not necessarily with sex workers. Especially post-Epstein Saga, I suspect that children may be included. Mere financial dirt or prostitutes would be easily forgiven (even cheered) by his rabid MAGAts, but child sexual abuse is surely beyond the pale even for them.
You are I’m certain closer to the mark on the financial leverage Putin’s got than maybe you realized. Given the people I once admired (especially Jack Nicklaus) speaking out in support of Trump I simply don’t hold the love for the sport I once did. I do still love the game and wish I could get out and play but follow it? Not like I used to. Golf is another example of ETTD and he’s drained so much of the honor from it that set it apart from other sports.
In any case it’s well established that towards the end of the 1990s U.S. Banks were done with Trump. At least in lending him any more money. They of course kept trying to get back what he owed them. Foreign banks weren’t exactly beating a path to loan him money either other than that shadowy special section at Deutsche Bank that seemed to specialize in money laundering with former east bloc countries.
Yet Trump spend vast sums buying and in his way sprucing up some iconic golf courses in the UK. Lot’s of folks wondered where all that money came from. Separately and to different golf writers Fredo’s 1 & 2 (Don Jr. and Eric Trump) openly said they got all the money they needed from Russia. That means Pottie and the Oligarchs (sounds like the name of a crappy rock band) and it’s widely assumed he’s in hock to them for bigly money.
He does have a few friends in high places and fortunately a couple in Scotland where some in that govt. were moving to get a Wealth Order to determine where all that money came from and in general give Trump the financial colonoscopy he’s mostly managed to avoid here in the U.S. One has to wonder if Putin having his people carry out assassinations on U.K. soid (including use of the deadly nerve agent Novacick) some subtle threats were made. It’s hard (for me at least) to avoid wondering whether those dots are connected.
Even if not, Trump owed Putin and others huge. Now with all his bitcoin wealth he could pay it back, even the loan shark level interest and they probably have demanded at least the initial investment and some, only some interest be paid. But they don’t want it ALL payed back. They want to keep holding a sword over his neck.
Either way they’ve got literal receipts. The kind of stuff Trump never wants to see the light of day. Especially now with the Epstein scandal. I can’t help but wonder if Putin had his own transactional thing with Epstein and has at least some stuff that would ruin Trump. Even if he doesn’t he can threaten Trump just by saying he does. Personally I think Putin had people go into Esptein’s NCY place (at least that one if not the others) and crack his safe and copy all that was in it.
I’ve never truly believed the golden shower thing. It was conflation of two different stories involving Trump. On the other hand I have no doubt at all that Putin set up Trump with some first class Russian escorts during visits there long before Trump got into politics. Probably over here too, especially in NYC and has every nasty bit of it on video.
But what Trump really has to fear is the money. SCOTUS gave him immunity for ‘Presidential Acts’ but they could always reverse themselves. Worse for Trump is that both here and in the U.K. since so much wheeling and dealing went on in pre-politics times he might be liable for financial crimes. The kind that could lead to seizure of the Trump Org and other assets!
Ant ole Pootie has Trump by his tiny shriveled balls on that one.