Excellent observation, IMHO. (Especially after the clarification in the next post).
FBI Search and Seizure at Trump's Mar-A-Lago Residence, August 8, 2022, Case Dismissed July 15, 2024
Sure, of course. Foreign governments and individuals looking for Trump’s favor threw dump trucks of money at him. Trump got lots and lots of quid.
But none of that ever created any sense of obligation in Trump, and they all pretty much gave him truckloads of money in exchange for the privilege of giving Trump truckloads of money. They never got any quo. MBN, the cousin of MBS I mentioned upthread, tried to counter the MBS/Jared bromance by shoveling money at Trump via an intermediary, and it didn’t get him anywhere, Trump still let Jared help depose him.
Furman and Parnas gave Trump a bunch of money, and the explicit ask was that he fire the Ukrainian ambassador. Which Trump eventually did, but it was like a year later and only after they pulled the “The ambassador hates you, she won’t hang your picture, I bet she voted for Hillary” card. It was playing to pettiness and hate that got her fired, not the suitcases of money. He couldn’t give a crap about helping them with their corrupt energy deals that had no benefit to him once he had their money, so they had to play to his vengefulness. And like I mentioned upthread, Elliot Brody gave him millions and couldn’t get Trump to give up three hours to play golf with his client.
I’m not saying Trump’s model isnt corrupt in its own way, I’m saying he doesn’t do quid pro quo corruption, like exchanging secrets for money. A business deal like that is what is called a win/win. Trump doesn’t believe in win/win deals, because he gets no satisfaction unless he screws the counterparty. He’s more into the extortionist business model.
Jared, on the other hand, has no moral compass and traffics in quid pro quo corruption. It’s telling that Jared believes in his fathers innocence. He doesn’t deny that his dad set his uncle up with a hooker, taped it and used those tapes to blackmail him to obstruct a federal investigation — he just doesn’t believe it was illegal or wrong.
I don’t know if this question has already been asked and answered, but it’s something that’s been bothering me about the assertion that NARA didn’t know Trump was in possession of classified documents until they started going through the 15 boxes returned back in January.
I have to assume with classified/top secret documents that there is some kind of chain of custody. Shouldn’t they have already known that Trump (or someone on his staff) was in possession of these documents and never returned them? Is federal record keeping really that sloppy that nobody knew? Or was the person in charge of chain of custody a Trumpie who just didn’t care that the documents never came back?
The only comments I’ve seen on this is that Trump was in the habit of keeping materials from his briefings, even though the people doing the briefing may have planned on taking the material back with them. They may have kept track of the materials still with the Prez, as a record in their office, but would Trump’s White House have kept a meticulous record of what Trump had? Dunno.
I’m thinking that their was a Presidential Daily Briefing, with a briefing book and materials, issued every day and that the archives realized they did not have one for every day and therefore knew exactly which ones were missing,
Or he just asked for papers on “Such-and-such” and kept page 45 because it was interesting, and no one double-checked in all of the chaos.
That’s possible. I think the short answer is that we just don’t know, and it may be in the redacted information. However, I’ve not found any reference to a concern about missing highly classified information prior to the arrival of the 15 boxes in January 2022.
If the Archives did know that classified material was missing prior to that date, then I would agree that they would have been incredibly negligent in letting the matter drag on for over a year. Since they moved so quickly to let DOJ know about the classified docs in the 15 boxes, I’m inclined to say that they didn’t know up to that time.
“I’m not saying Trump’s model isnt corrupt in its own way, I’m saying he doesn’t do quid pro quo corruption, like exchanging secrets for money. A business deal like that is what is called a win/win. Trump doesn’t believe in win/win deals, because he gets no satisfaction unless he screws the counterparty. He’s more into the extortionist business model.”
I agree with you, but I think it’s at least possible that Trump is giving Putin the quo for the quid he has been receiving for a lifetime, not out of a sense of loyalty, but maybe out of fear. I can easily believe that Putin made it clear he can kill anybody, anytime he wants.
Or maybe I’ve just watched too many spy movies lately.
I agree that Trump likely doesn’t often meet someone who doesn’t really need anything from him. Having him in the White House is useful to Putin, but Trump can’t hold anything over him or bully him the way he’s used to doing. Though I doubt Trump’s picked up on that fact.
I also believe that Trump is more into the extortion business model. See Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a reference to that. He withheld funds to try to get Zelenskyy to manufacture dirt on Hunter Biden. The GOP is still chasing that ghost.
Also look to Lindsey Graham as an example. Of course he could just be as reprehensible as Trump, but oh boy did he change his tune when Trump was elected. Hmmm.
I also believe that Putin uses the extortion business model (that and his army). Trump may be the one being extorted now. Trump certainly had business in Russia. Along with certain other… activities that we are unsure of. That could explain why Trump held onto Top Secret documents.
I also believe that he wanted those docs to show how important he was. Or to extort others in the government.
It was illegal for him to have them. Doesn’t matter what is in them. Could be Melania’s favorite recipe. It does not matter. The FBI tried to retrieve them a number of times. Trump sort of complied. But kept some.
He. Kept. Some.
Regardless, Putin has something to laugh about. He picked, and got elected the perfect president for the USA to screw us over for years to come. Putin doesn’t even have to lift a finger at this point.
I also believe that Putin thought he could get Trump re-elected. That would have helped him take over Ukraine in a big way. Trump had already attempted to withhold congressionally approved funds for Ukraine. The ball was already rolling though. He apparently had no idea of the resolve of the Ukrainian people, or of the ability of his own military.
Corruption runs quite deep when it comes from above.
Speculation:
Wouldn’t you keep your stolen Top Secret document stash with your Little Black Book of Extortion Secrets and Evidence, as well as The Real Accounting Ledgers (Not The Ones Presented to the Marks), and other, secret, documents?
It could be he is freaking out about something completely unrelated to what everyone else is saying. I can imagine the movie dialog right now “Hey, um, Merrick? Your guys happen to grab an old brown leather satchel, kind of beat up? We, uh, really need that back, and soon. Thanks!”
Trump has shown that he is above the law for years/decades. I’m surprised he even had a safe and did not keep stuff in a sock drawer.
Putin, though, an ex KGB agent knows a little bit more about this stuff. He probably also understands that Trumps brain is little more than some undercooked noodles.
Putin probably doesn’t give a shit about Trump at this point. He already has all the info he wants.
Putin’s goal would be to have Trump keep screwing the US. But we are doing that all on our own.
I do in fact, in case I have to run fast. 
Yep, that’s why I wonder what is in those photo albums. This guy isn’t sentimental enough to care about old photos. Unless of course they were revealing photos of his daughter at a younger age. Or pictures of Congressmen in compromising situations. He is old school enough to keep actual photos of that kind of shit.
He was a friend of Jeffrey Epstein.
I generally agree. I will say that if Trump is charged and if he files a motion to suppress the evidence seized during the search, claiming the warrant did not establish probable cause, the entire warrant would like be attached to his motion.
That’s how we used to do it, anyway. Maybe when national security issues are involved they would seal the motion and/or attachments.
He traditionally lies, cheats and steals during most business transactions, and we have absolutely no idea (yet) what he has or has not given Putin.
He’s got the pictures his buddy Gaetz was sharing on the House floor. He’s afraid one of the subjects was underaged.
Putin wasn’t just a KGB agent, he ran the KGB. He’s also a lot smarter than Trump.
My dog is smarter than Trump.
That’s not just a facetious comment. Putin managed to get Trump – then the actual President of the United States – to repudiate the United States and to undermine its national intelligence organizations in support of Putin’s lies. Trump’s statements were so incendiary that his handlers made him walk them back, which did no good whatsoever because among throngs of reporters and recording devices the claim that they had been “misheard” was downright comical.
Trump is cooked. The feds win 92% of their cases, I believe.