# I think Trump is being blackmailed **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 5, 2017, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-trump-is-being-blackmailed/783816 "2017-04-05T15:25:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Clu-Me-In](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@Clu-Me-In](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clu-Me-In)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-trump-is-being-blackmailed/783816/1 "2017-04-05T15:25:03Z")
Seriously speaking, all jokes aside, why would any Head of State, President, Chancellor, Prime Minister, King or Queen bother to negotiate and agree to anything with Donald Trump when it is clear he has no qualms about reneging or unilaterally tossing aside that same agreement the next day if he wakes up on the wrong side of his gold sheet lined bed? Who does not know by now that he lies all the time? The one person who knows exactly how to deal with him would obviously be a KGB agent who lies in the same manner and knows that the only way to make sure Donald Trump behaves and does what he’s told is to have him by the balls, document his known criminal indescretions and use them to hold him hostage and make him a PUPPET. Donald Trump is behaving EXACTLY like a man being BLACKMAILED. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-trump-is-being-blackmailed/783816/2 "2017-04-05T15:31:07Z")
> [@Clu-Me-In](#): > > Donald Trump is behaving EXACTLY like a man being BLACKMAILED. Yes, he is. But he’s also acting exactly like a man with an incredible ego, an inability to distinguish reality from fiction, no curiosity about the world, and not a lot of intellect. Occam’s razor suggests that’s more likely than blackmailing the leader of the free world. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-trump-is-being-blackmailed/783816/3 "2017-04-05T15:34:31Z")
Donald Trump is behaving exactly as he describes his approach to business in [_The Art of the Deal_](https://www.amazon.com/Trump-Art-Deal-Donald-J/dp/0399594493). Why anyone would expect any different behavior, or attribute such behavior to outside influences is beyond me. It is clear that many Trump associates have had various contacts with Russian business connected with Vladimir Putin and the FSB, and potentially with Russian state intelligence organs directly. However, I doubt that Putin or his henchmen have directly recruited Trump if for no other reason than that Trump doesn’t know how to keep his fucking mouth shut. He’s a pathological borderline personality with anti-social features and I frankly wouldn’t trust him to look after a pet rock. Putin is more canny than to put his own reputation in the hands of a guy who wears a smashed hampster on his head, and I suspect his motivations in manipulating the US election were not to get Trump elected but just to throw enough shade on Hillary Clinton to make her term as president as conspiracy-ridden and distracted as possible. Putin is probably just as surprised as everyone else that Trump was actually elected and is now trying to figure out how to deal with an unhinged, ignorant, blustering president who controls one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal with weapons specifically designed to turn Moscow into a radioactive wasteland. You play with fire, you get burnt. You play with excrement, you get shit all over you. Happy finger painting, Vlad. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-trump-is-being-blackmailed/783816/4 "2017-04-05T15:44:40Z")
Perhaps Trump just thinks that the Russians have something on him and doesn’t want certain things to come to light. Take his income taxes. I doubt the Russians have copies of his tax returns, but for some reason he really doesn’t want to share what’s in them. So not all of his strange behavior an be attributed to possible disclosure or blackmail by the Russians. The good news is that someone in the IRS can get hold of those returns and release them into the wild. It’s only a matter of time. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-trump-is-being-blackmailed/783816/5 "2017-04-05T15:48:51Z")
The IRS cannot publicly disclose someone’s tax returns without permission unless there is pending litigation (e.g. tax fraud). The reason Trump doesn’t want anyone to see his tax returns is because they’ll reveal that he is nowhere near as wealthy as he claims. Trump may well want to hide business or personal dealings, or even connections to Russian or Chinese funds, but his current behavior is more likely just the actions of a belligerent, thoughtless, misogynistic Internet troll who was somehow elevated from King of the Tweetstorms to President of the United States by appealing to voters’ fears and insecurities. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-trump-is-being-blackmailed/783816/6 "2017-04-05T15:53:56Z")
Trump is a pernicious idiot, unfit to shovel shit from one place to another. No more, no less. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-trump-is-being-blackmailed/783816/7 "2017-04-05T17:05:40Z")
The Russians want the sanctions taken away and the price of oil to go back up. Trump has done nothing on the first one, even though he could, and on the second he has approved pipelines and has taken actions on pipelines and regulations to make fossil fuels cheaper. I see no evidence that Trump is acting like a black mailed person. On the other hand many people have seem to become unhinged at his election. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-trump-is-being-blackmailed/783816/8 "2017-04-05T17:15:29Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > The Russians want the sanctions taken away and the price of oil to go back up. Trump has done nothing on the first one, even though he could, He couldn’t even get his own party to go along with something they’ve all been promising for years, yet you think he could get away with lifting sanctions on the government that his administration is under investigation for being in cahoots with? Though, I admit, I’d like to see him try it. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-trump-is-being-blackmailed/783816/9 "2017-04-05T17:34:40Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > On the other hand many people have seem to become unhinged at his election. [They certainly have.](http://www.salon.com/2016/11/17/sore-winner-syndrome-why-are-donald-trumps-supporters-still-so-angry-abraham-lincoln-understood/) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-trump-is-being-blackmailed/783816/10 "2017-04-05T18:33:26Z")
> [@Clu-Me-In](#): > > Seriously speaking, all jokes aside, why would any Head of State, President, Chancellor, Prime Minister, King or Queen bother to negotiate and agree to anything with Donald Trump when it is clear he has no qualms about reneging or unilaterally tossing aside that same agreement the next day if he wakes up on the wrong side of his gold sheet lined bed? > > Who does not know by now that he lies all the time? The one person who knows exactly how to deal with him would obviously be a KGB agent who lies in the same manner and knows that the only way to make sure Donald Trump behaves and does what he’s told is to have him by the balls, document his known criminal indescretions and use them to hold him hostage and make him a PUPPET. Gold lining sheets would certainly make one irritable; but the OP suggests to me that the KGB has photographs of a forced nude gold-covered Trump as in the James Bond film and will unleash them unless he turns over Fort Knox to them. Or something. ---
**Author:** ![Clu-Me-In](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@Clu-Me-In](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clu-Me-In)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-trump-is-being-blackmailed/783816/11 "2017-04-05T18:47:42Z")
Maybe they have pics of a golden shower. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-trump-is-being-blackmailed/783816/12 "2017-04-05T18:48:42Z")
You can’t blackmail someone who has no shame. You can very easily bribe him. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-trump-is-being-blackmailed/783816/13 "2017-04-05T19:29:51Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > You can’t blackmail someone who has no shame. You can very easily bribe him. And with Trump, you don’t even need to bribe him with money. That would work, but more effective would be bribing him with flattery, telling him how great his election victory was, how big his hands are, how big his inaugural crowd was, what a great deal maker he is. People with NPD are easily manipulated if you push the right levers. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-trump-is-being-blackmailed/783816/14 "2017-04-05T19:35:31Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Donald Trump is behaving exactly as he describes his approach to business in [_The Art of the Deal_](https://www.amazon.com/Trump-Art-Deal-Donald-J/dp/0399594493). Why anyone would expect any different behavior, or attribute such behavior to outside influences is beyond me. I know Hitler comparisons are overused, but it’s interesting to me that people were surprised by Hitler’s actions once he rose to power even though Mein Kampf laid out his idea of what was needed for Germany and the German race pretty clearly. The same thing seems to be happening here; Trump is behaving like he’s behaved for years and is using techniques he’s written about (or dictated someone to write about), but people seem surprised and keep coming up with elaborate conspiracies to explain his actions. > [@](#): > > Putin is probably just as surprised as everyone else that Trump was actually elected and is now trying to figure out how to deal with an unhinged, ignorant, blustering president who controls one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal with weapons specifically designed to turn Moscow into a radioactive wasteland. I agree on this. I’m pretty sure Putin wanted predictable, establishment Clinton in office wracked with scandals, saddled with a republican congress, and unable to effectively create policy. Ending up with an unpredictable, egotistical president with a strong following, Congress that consistently falls in line behind him, and who doesn’t care about how he’s viewed by history or contemporaries has got to be scary for the leader of the country targetted by US nukes. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-trump-is-being-blackmailed/783816/15 "2017-04-05T19:55:53Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > And with Trump, you don’t even need to bribe him with money. That would work, but more effective would be bribing him with flattery, telling him how great his election victory was, how big his hands are, how big his inaugural crowd was, what a great deal maker he is. People with NPD are easily manipulated if you push the right levers. “Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy? Is Donnie a good boy? Such a good boy!” > [@Pantastic](#): > > I agree on this. I’m pretty sure Putin wanted predictable, establishment Clinton in office wracked with scandals, saddled with a republican congress, and unable to effectively create policy. Ending up with an unpredictable, egotistical president with a strong following, Congress that consistently falls in line behind him, and who doesn’t care about how he’s viewed by history or contemporaries has got to be scary for the leader of the country targetted by US nukes. Yeah, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Putin has the FSB start interfering and releasing information about Trump; that might actually be the way we end up with Trump’s tax returns. However, as dangerously capricious as Trump is, Putin probably realizes that Pence would be even worse for him. The next forty-five months are going to be some real tightrope walking in terms of goading Trump into belligerent distraction without pushing him so far as to start interfering with Russian interests. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-trump-is-being-blackmailed/783816/16 "2017-04-06T01:08:51Z")
> [@Evan\_Drake](#): > > Gold lining sheets would certainly make one irritable; but the OP suggests to me that the KGB has photographs of a forced nude gold-covered Trump as in the James Bond film and will unleash them unless he turns over Fort Knox to them. > Or something. \*Coalfinger…! _sax solo_ He’s the man, the man with the Tiny Touch A spider’s touch Such an old finger Beckons you to enter his NSC (But don’t go Pee…!) Smirking words he will pour in your ear But he lies for the fools drunk on beer! For a golden wife knows when he’s kissed her It’s Pre-Nup of Death from Mister Coalfinger _sax solo_ Pretty girl beware of joining his fold, You’ll Smell Like Mold!!! Smirking words he will pour in your ear But he lies for the fools drunk on beer! For a golden wife knows when he’s kissed her It’s Pre-Nup of Death from Mister Coalfinger _sax solo_ Pretty girl beware of joining his fold, You’ll Smell Like Mold!!! He loves only gold… Only gold He loves gold He loves only gold… Only gold He loves go-oooold… \*