I don’t have a thorough knowledge of all the dynamics involved here but I believe that Trump feels bringing the Russians more solidly into the international community and as a friend to us would enhance our bargaining power as well as giving us more economic leverage with the Chinese.
Google “Oil Exxon Putin”. You’ll get an avalanche, take a sandwich, you’ll be there for a while. Maybe a sleeping bag too.
Money.
Or, more precisely, the need to borrow it.
Real Estate is all about mortgaging assets. But Trump burned his bridges with all of the major lenders in the West. So he turned to the Russians for his loans.
Now he owes them a metric fuck-ton of cash. As does people close to him, like Kushner.
At least, that’s my “back of the napkin” take on it.
Russia COULD not help with China. They have no influence there at all, and China has far more dependence on American markets than it does on Russian ones.
As for “bringing Russia more solidly into the international community,” Russia under Putin is actively doing that by itself. Of course, as far as Putin is concerned, “bringing Russia more solidly into the international community” means physically conquering and absorbing the Ukraine, and destroying the most powerful European democracies. Not exactly sure how Trump would want to try to sell that, but he sure is trying to help Putin as much as he can with it. Mainly by being oblivious to pretty much everything.
It would certainly connect to business rather than politics; Trump has little interest in politics, far less the international version.
tbh, so eager were they to develop the business aspect, I think they - stupidly, naively - just ploughed into it in the second half of last year.
At the end of the day, this presidency gig is a great business opportunity. Be crazy not to see what can be worked out.
I don’t think it is about money. I think he’s obsessed with authoritarians: cozying up to real ones at any opportunity, and trying to become one himself.
I actually think he may have told the truth that one time he said he was scared about Russia due to them having nukes. His fear of nukes has been consistent, showing up in one of his earlier books.
Though I’m sure the business stuff and his love of “great men” is also a factor. I just wanted to offer another one.
Trump says nice things about lots of dictators and authoritarian leaders. I’m not surprised he would say nice things about Rodrigo Duterte. I am surprised he says nice things about King Jong-un although of course he called him a madman with nuclear weapons.
Pot, I’d like you to meet Kettle. Who says that 'mericans just don’t get irony?
Not sure if you’re agreeing or arguing.
HoneyBadgerDC,
You might want to check out PBS Frontline’s epsiode from April “Bannon’s War”. It covers, to some extent, Bannon ascribing to the notion that US history shows us on 80 year cycles in four seasons with winter being a period of upheaval and destruction. Here’s a NYT article that focuses more on the domestic aspects of taking a wrecking ball to the poorly functioning administrative state. The Frontline episode looks more at what he’s seen as the big external threat since before 9-11, Islamic terrorism. It paints the picture of the big conflict in Bannon’s mind being between the Judeo-Christian west and Islam.
The Russian Orthodox church is part of the nationalism that Putin used to gain and maintain power. Russia has had severe issues with terrorism. Combine that with Bannon’s worldview and they are natural allies for the big international threat. Involvement that helps with the domestic issue of weakening the current administrative state through information operations is just a added bonus.
The two main reasons I see are:
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I think a lot of it is driven by the Bannon Breitbart faction within the White House. That group and the alt-right types have this weird nexis with Putin and Russia. They identify with the hard core nationalism and admire the strong arm tactics and the oppression of alternate lifestyles.
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Putin said nice things about Trump and, IIRC, called him brilliant at a time when all the other world leaders were holding their noses and snickering at him. Trump’s easy that way, a little ass-kissing goes a long way with him.
Now my 2 others are very speculative and my intuition may be wrong on both points.
- I think he harbored a very specific fantasy about making a certain deal with Russia. I think he thought he could get them to stop backing Assad, stop backing Iran and stop invading Ukraine all by promising to lift sanctions. A very stupid idea, if that’s what he thought - if it was that easy it would’ve been done a long time ago - but Trump is Trump and he fancies himself a genius.
Somehow I gleaned this out of the gibberish that comes out of his mouth when he speaks, but I don’t really speak Trump so I may be wrong.
- I heard one of his sons -I can’t remember if it was Uday or Qusay- talk about how the Trump Organization decided not to do business in Russia because it was too scary. Now, I agree with him - I’ve read some horror stories - but I think that while Trump accepted that assessment it wormed under his skin and made him feel like he “lost”. So now I think that he has an obsession with " doing business and making deals with Russia" .
That one’s really out of left field but I wouldn’t be surprised.
.
**Any theories on why Trump wants to buddy up with the Russians?
**I’m speculating here, I don’t have any details, but somrthing to do with Trump’s wallet.
I think it’s a combination of things. Partly it’s business…Trump et al have some business interests in Russia. Partly I think it’s basically being anti-Obama…he perceives that Obama didn’t like Russia (whether true or not is irrelevant, as Trump and reality rarely collide), and basically Trump is anti-Obama everything. Partly I think it’s just ignorance…he doesn’t have much of a clue about international politics, knows next to nothing about Russia’s actions (he didn’t believe the Syrian’s had used chemical weapons until it happened on his watch, so didn’t believe Putin were playing fast and loose in the Ukraine until the same thing), listens to right wing crazies like Alex Jones et al, is clueless about history…basically, he’s just clueless and disinclined to listen to anyone from any government intelligence agencies before or after he was sworn in.
So…a perfect storm of business interests and ignorance. Pretty much the story of his life.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Russians lending him money, Russians overpaying for Trump properties.
They OWN him. 
Pfff…like Trump has any fucking clue about international politics.
It’s about the money – Trump’s money. Russia’s got leverage on Trump. I don’t know exactly what it is, but Putin’s holding a bag of gold that Trump wants and needs. However, Trump’s financial interests have very little alignment with the financial interests of the rest of the world and it’s going to be rather interesting to see what happens as Putin continues to press his tactical war against the Western alliance or what’s left of it.
Make no mistake about it: Petrya was a cyber-assault on Ukraine, but more than that, it was a message to the United States. The message is this: Russia can destroy all of the wealth, development, and modernity that makes America a powerful, modern nation state. If Putin and Trump actually do meet, I suspect that there will be discussions about the US Senate’s vote to impose further sanctions against the Russians. The timing is not coincidental. Nor is the assassination of an Ukrainian official.
I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that the Russian Mafia has him by the short curlies, following some shady real estate deals that went bad.
It’s a mutual admiration society, I think. Carefully orchestrated conflict. All to, alternately, make each other look tough on the other. Against an uber hyped, manufactured threat, that has everyone on the edge of their seats.
Threats, salty language, heightened tensions, strong show of force as response, and then, some distraction takes the headline and things appear to calm down. Tough guy takes the credit. Rinse and repeat, from each side in turn.
Tough guy def gets re elected!
I’m disagreeing with your statement that it is not about money.
in my opinion, Trump’s relationship to Russia can be traced back to the fact that 1) he has lost the ability to secure loans with Western banks, and 2) he relies on funding to develop real estate.
Ergo, it’s all about money.