# Is Donald Trump a Putin patsy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 25, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875 "2016-07-25T19:00:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/341 "2016-08-01T15:42:50Z")
Is there a legal requirement to give Trump intelligence briefings? ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/342 "2016-08-01T15:54:11Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Is there a legal requirement to give Trump intelligence briefings? No. It’s a 60 year old tradition. Obama could put the kibosh on it if he wanted. As far as I know, it’s not really ongoing briefings. It’s just a one time thing to get a candidate up to speed on big issues/concerns. ---
**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:** [August 1, 2016, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/343 "2016-08-01T18:14:26Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Is there a legal requirement to give Trump intelligence briefings? No. But I think we have a moral obligation to try. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/344 "2016-08-01T18:33:44Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > "How Paul Manafort Wielded Power in Ukraine Before Advising Donald Trump’ > [http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/01/us/paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-trump.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/01/us/paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-trump.html) This brings up some questions regarding Trump’s hiring of Manafort. Did that decision follow some communication to the effect ‘half your $40 million dollar debt to us will be forgiven if you…’? Granted, Manafort had a reputation in the political campaign biz independent of his possible Putin/oligarch connections, but even so, it would be very interesting to see Trump’s emails (and phone records) for the days leading up to the hiring of Manafort. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/345 "2016-08-01T18:50:37Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > it would be very interesting to see Trump’s emails (and phone records) for the days leading up to the hiring of Manafort. Hopefully the Chinese will hack his servers and release the emails. They would probably be rewarded mightily by our press. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/346 "2016-08-01T20:07:01Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Hopefully the Chinese will hack his servers and release the emails. They would probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Thank heavens no one in public life would ever say anything so irresponsible. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/347 "2016-08-01T20:58:24Z")
If Trump isn’t a Putin patsy, can somebody construct a fictional person that would be better for Russia than Trump? He’s cozied up to him, praised him in comparison to our own president, said NATO allies can’t depend on him, supported the weakening of the EU through the British exit, and invited their hackers to steal our government correspondence. Short of giving Putin our nuclear codes, what else a fictional person do that’s as bad as what Trump’s done? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/348 "2016-08-02T03:29:39Z")
[Ummmm…](http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/08/01/us/paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-trump.html) > [@](#): > > When the government of President Petro O. Poroshenko called snap parliamentary elections for October 2014, just eight months later, Mr. Manafort rallied the dispirited remnants of Mr. Yanukovych’s party. > > He was now on the payroll of Mr. Yanukovych’s former chief of staff, Serhiy Lyovochkin. Mr. Manafort flew to Ukraine in September 2014 and set to work rebranding a party deeply fractured by the violence and by Russia’s intervention. > > Rather than try to resurrect the disgraced party, he supported pitching a bigger political tent to help his clients and, he argued, to help stabilize Ukraine. The new bloc would woo everyone in the country angry at the new Western-backed government. > > It was Mr. Manafort who had argued for a new name for the movement — the Opposition Bloc, or Oppo Bloc, as it was called. “He thought to gather the largest number of people opposed to the current government, you needed to avoid anything concrete, and just become a symbol of being opposed,” recalled Mikhail B. Pogrebinsky, a political analyst in Kiev. > > The strategy worked. Under the new name, the Party of Regions kept a foothold in Parliament. Its new bloc now has 43 members in the 450-seat chamber. > > **It is not clear that Mr. Manafort’s work in Ukraine ended with his work with Mr. Trump’s campaign. A communications aide for Mr. Lyovochkin, who financed Mr. Manafort’s work, declined to say whether he was still on retainer or how much he had been paid.** ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/349 "2016-08-02T04:19:46Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > I think it fair to conclude that Trump is not so much Putin’s deliberate patsy… A patsy is never deliberate. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/350 "2016-08-02T12:40:51Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > I don’t think Putin would make a move on Latvia and Estonia. Anyway, U.S. escalation may not be the best course of action if he did. Was it a good idea when Russia backed Serbia and Germany backed Austria-Hungary? > ] > [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Well, that’s a relief then - We don’t need mutual defense treaties at all, since Russia has shown themselves to be not interested at all in regaining territory from the former USSR. And after all, it will be fine to let Russia annex the Sudetenland errr, I mean the Crimea. I’m sure that they’ll stop there. Don’t escalate. Just give them what they want. > > Actually, I’d rather listen to experts on the issue, rather than some dude’s opinion. Thanks anyway. No you wouldn’t. You’d rather listen to the political hacks and warmongers on Fox News and NPR. [http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/07/30/russia\_expert\_stephen\_cohen\_trump\_wants\_to\_stop\_the\_new\_cold\_war\_but\_the\_america\_media\_just\_doesnt\_understand.html](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/07/30/russia_expert_stephen_cohen_trump_wants_to_stop_the_new_cold_war_but_the_america_media_just_doesnt_understand.html) An expert on Russia backs up my claim stating that there is no evidence “whatsoever” that Putin wants to end the independence of the Baltic states. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/351 "2016-08-02T12:43:25Z")
> [@YogSothoth](#): > > If Trump isn’t a Putin patsy, can somebody construct a fictional person that would be better for Russia than Trump? He’s cozied up to him, praised him in comparison to our own president, said NATO allies can’t depend on him, supported the weakening of the EU through the British exit, and invited their hackers to steal our government correspondence. Short of giving Putin our nuclear codes, what else a fictional person do that’s as bad as what Trump’s done? Of course being good for Russia is different from being good for Putin, but your confusion says a lot about the Russophobic ideology. A candidate good for Russia, and the US, would be a free trade candidate. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/352 "2016-08-02T12:50:26Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > "How Paul Manafort Wielded Power in Ukraine Before Advising Donald Trump’ > [http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/01/us/paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-trump.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/01/us/paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-trump.html) Interesting read. Makes me wonder how nonchalantly a reputable paper can label someone a politically charged term like “oligarch”. I would be surprised if the charge wasn’t true, but at the same time, by what conceivable definition is Hillary Clinton not an oligarch? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/353 "2016-08-02T12:51:08Z")
50% of Americans believe Russia is attempting to influence the US Presidential elections. [http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/02/politics/presidential-polls-trump-vs-clinton/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/02/politics/presidential-polls-trump-vs-clinton/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/354 "2016-08-02T13:07:34Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > 50% of Americans believe Russia is attempting to influence the US Presidential elections. > > [http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/02/politics/presidential-polls-trump-vs-clinton/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/02/politics/presidential-polls-trump-vs-clinton/index.html) Yeah when the media is telling them everyday that it is the case, why wouldn’t they. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/355 "2016-08-02T13:10:11Z")
Odd that Trump would allow himself to be branded like this… I thought he was a marketing and business genius. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/356 "2016-08-02T13:12:57Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Interesting read. Makes me wonder how nonchalantly a reputable paper can label someone a politically charged term like “oligarch”. I would be surprised if the charge wasn’t true, but at the same time, by what conceivable definition is Hillary Clinton not an oligarch? How does she match the definition of an oligarch? She is not a wealthy business woman pulling political power from the shadows. Russian oligarchs are also Billionaires, far more rich than the Clintons. Do you have some real reason to think the article used the label nonchalantly? You have some defense to make for Firtash or Deripaska? ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/357 "2016-08-02T15:45:41Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Of course being good for Russia is different from being good for Putin, but your confusion says a lot about the Russophobic ideology. A candidate good for Russia, and the US, would be a free trade candidate. Putin is Russia. You can’t separate the two. That you pretend it isn’t is indicative of your political bent. And sure, maybe destroying the EU and disbanding NATO may also be good for Russia, but I wouldn’t cozy up to Russia at the expense of our allies. Russia’s not worth the EU, I’d rather ally myself with the likes of France and England than Russia; Trump would do the opposite, at the great cost to the US ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/358 "2016-08-02T17:50:12Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Yeah when the media is telling them everyday that it is the case, why wouldn’t they. As opposed to law enforcement agencies stating that that is very likely the case. So yeah, I’ll go with the media and law enforcement, and analysis of _cui bono_. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/359 "2016-08-02T17:58:48Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > No you wouldn’t. You’d rather listen to the political hacks and warmongers on Fox News and NPR. > > [Russia Expert Stephen Cohen: Trump Wants To Stop The New Cold War, But The America Media Just Doesn't Understand](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/07/30/russia_expert_stephen_cohen_trump_wants_to_stop_the_new_cold_war_but_the_america_media_just_doesnt_understand.html) > > An expert on Russia backs up my claim stating that there is no evidence “whatsoever” that Putin wants to end the independence of the Baltic states. This reads like a Trump campaign ad. This ‘expert’ claims that Trump plans to defuse a ‘new cold war’ by cozying up to Putin. I find it hard to believe that Trump, who has no idea of the actual situation in Ukraine, for instance, has anything resembling a cogent plan. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875/360 "2016-08-02T18:28:58Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > This reads like a Trump campaign ad. This ‘expert’ claims that Trump plans to defuse a ‘new cold war’ by cozying up to Putin. That’s not exactly what the “professor emeritus of Russian studies at NYU and Princeton” said. He’s saying there should be a debate on the NATO mission: [QUOTE=STEPHEN F. COHEN] I don’t defend Trump. Trump raises questions. And instead of giving answer to the substance of the question, we denounce him as some kind of Kremlin agent. That’s bad for our politics, but still worse, given the danger we’re not addressing it. [/QUOTE] Now for all I know he’s an expert on Russian folk dancing but putting the scare quotes around it is pretty lame when he is a professor of Russian studies and you are ‘some random nobody on the internet’. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-donald-trump-a-putin-patsy/760875.md?page=19)