# Trump has pipeline to Putin? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 12, 2018, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260 "2018-04-12T02:21:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/1 "2018-04-12T02:21:07Z")
What is the likelihood of Trump having an untraceable pipeline to Putin. They could stage international crises and both come out looing good. I have a feeling our government has serious concerns of possible blackmailing of our president by the Russians. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/2 "2018-04-12T03:05:34Z")
Think of all the investigative scrutiny Trump’s advisors have been under, and all the near-daily news articles claiming multiple sources about how Trump is reacting to the news of the day. The idea that he could be communicating untraceably seems difficult to sustain. Besides which, if Putin were able to achieve such an advantage, he would benefit far more from revealing it, and throwing the US government into compete chaos. Or at least he’d actually use his advantage; if Putin really were calling the shots, I think it’s unlikely that we’d have Nikki Haley at the U.N., or unimpeded fracking across the country. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/3 "2018-04-12T03:58:31Z")
These days, it should be relatively easy for anyone to communicate relatively untraceably with anyone else. There’s probably enough eyes on all of the packets going in and out of DC that maybe someone would be able to track back the encrypted packets that were going to Russia to the bedroom if the White House, but out on a golf course in Florida? Smooth sailing. That said, it seems better to entrust the communications to a middle man - Keith Schiller for example - and then have secure, anonymous communications with him instead. Whether Trump is in that deep with Russia really depends on whether they actually have blackmail material on him or not. Personally, I’m still rather spooked by the rapid turn around he made after backing the Ukraine, early in his term, just to come out shouting, “America kills people too!”, less than 48 hours later and supporting Russia again. And there’s still no good explanation for him to have scuttled everything Jared was working on in the Middle East, back when he unilaterally announced that the US accepts Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. But, that said, I wouldn’t bet $50 on the idea that Trump is literally taking orders directly from Russia. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that they consider him too dumb to safely get close enough to to try and arrange something like that, and so he isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/4 "2018-04-12T04:22:15Z")
A bull in a china shop doesn’t need to get orders from the anti-china league in order to cause damage, he just does what comes naturally. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/5 "2018-04-12T11:04:42Z")
Because if there’s one thing his White House is known for, it is playing 134 dimensional chess. ---
**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 12, 2018, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/6 "2018-04-12T12:11:01Z")
You mean Sean Hannity and Fox News? Not exactly a well kept secret. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/7 "2018-04-12T12:15:26Z")
In order for that to happen, Trump people would have had secret meetings with Russians to set up a back channel, and something about that probably would have leaked. Oh wait… ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/8 "2018-04-12T12:25:34Z")
I’m certain Putin has access to Trumps’ pipeline and has used it on numerous occasions. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/9 "2018-04-12T12:51:11Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Think of all the investigative scrutiny Trump’s advisors have been under, and all the near-daily news articles claiming multiple sources about how Trump is reacting to the news of the day. The idea that he could be communicating untraceably seems difficult to sustain. > > Besides which, if Putin were able to achieve such an advantage, he would benefit far more from revealing it, and throwing the US government into compete chaos. Or at least he’d actually use his advantage; if Putin really were calling the shots, I think it’s unlikely that we’d have Nikki Haley at the U.N., or unimpeded fracking across the country. If Trump’s organization were as powerful and well-organized as Trump’s fans seem to think, I don’t think it would be hard for some underling to pass messages back and forth to some Putin underling. Heck, even using simple steganography techniques on uploaded porn images, messages could be sent that defied NSA decryption. I don’t think Trump or his people are anywhere near that level of sophistication, but it shouldn’t be too hard to pass an occasional surreptitious message. Anyway, wasn’t there a direct link from some Trump Tower computer and a Kremlin-affiliated one? Exactly what Putin would have Trump do if he really pulled the puppet strings is unclear. (Certainly nothing like the picayune fumblings of the Trump family, e.g. getting White House staff to pimp Ivanka’s made-in-Bangladesh shoes! :smack: ) But it would be counterproductive to expose himself as puppeteer; far better would be for Trump to put on a show of opposing Russia. I don’t think we need to be expert in 8-dimensional chess to realize that the impending conflict between Russia and America in Syria is likely to work to Putin’s advantage. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/10 "2018-04-12T15:07:12Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > What is the likelihood of Trump having an untraceable pipeline to Putin. They could stage international crises and both come out looing good. As with so many other conspiracy theories, my reaction is “if those folks are in collusion and this is a conspiracy, Jesus fucking christ are they ever incompetent at it” You see much “looking good” taking place so far? \*\* stares off towards the political horizon \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/11 "2018-04-12T15:25:51Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > A bull in a china shop doesn’t need to get orders from the anti-china league in order to cause damage, he just does what comes naturally. I agree. I don’t think Putin ever planned on controlling the United States through Trump. He just wanted to get an ineffective President in office so America wouldn’t interfere with Russian ambitions. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/12 "2018-04-12T17:57:10Z")
I think it would be trivially easy so long as there isn’t serious surveillance of all of Trump’s Crony’s. For example, Putin could set up an encrypted chatroom on the Dark Web, Cohen logs in nightly chats with whomever and then drops in on the president the next day. Or if direct negotiation is necessary Trump calls Cohen on his cell while Cohen is logged in. Unless they are monitoring Cohen’s internet activity and either the president’s or Cohen’s cell phone conversations whose to know? ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/13 "2018-04-12T18:13:20Z")
Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t world leaders supposed to be able to just pick up the phone and talk with each other? Trump has reached a new low, but it’s difficult to imagine that any of our previous presidents would have been afraid to call up another world leader for fear that some nebulous “they” might be listening. Isn’t there even supposedly some “red phone” on the president’s desk that has a direct line to the Kremlin so that the POTUS and the Russian president can reach each other directly in case of some event like a false alert for a nuclear launch or things of that sort? ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/14 "2018-04-12T18:58:05Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t world leaders supposed to be able to just pick up the phone and talk with each other? Trump has reached a new low, but it’s difficult to imagine that any of our previous presidents would have been afraid to call up another world leader for fear that some nebulous “they” might be listening. Isn’t there even supposedly some “red phone” on the president’s desk that has a direct line to the Kremlin so that the POTUS and the Russian president can reach each other directly in case of some event like a false alert for a nuclear launch or things of that sort? Conversations between world leaders are carefully monitored by both sides. The White House will usually put out a summary of the topics discussed in major calls, and in any case, each side will want to have someone listening to take notes about what each leader said and didn’t say. This is for the purpose of catching nuanced statements that one leader might not understand right away, and also for the surety that the other side can’t claim that your leader agreed to compete capitulation on the call. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/15 "2018-04-13T00:24:34Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > What is the likelihood of Trump having an untraceable pipeline to Putin. They could stage international crises and both come out looing good. I have a feeling our government has serious concerns of possible blackmailing of our president by the Russians. Wow, you’d think if the America-hating fuckstick has an exploit that could result in him looking good, we’d have seen him looking good, at least ONCE, wouldn’t ya? ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/16 "2018-04-13T01:04:03Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Wow, you’d think if the America-hating fuckstick has an exploit that could result in him looking good, we’d have seen him looking good, at least ONCE, wouldn’t ya? You phrase that as though only one of the two people involved is an America-hating fuckstick, but I’m puzzled as to which one you think is not. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/17 "2018-04-13T02:06:03Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I agree. I don’t think Putin ever planned on controlling the United States through Trump. He just wanted to get an ineffective President in office so America wouldn’t interfere with Russian ambitions. I don’t think Putin actually planned on Trump winning the election; he just wanted to use Trump to create chaos with the election and undermine Clinton’s presidency. The Kremlin was just as shocked as Trump Tower when Trump actually won. ---
**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 13, 2018, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/18 "2018-04-13T02:33:26Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I agree. I don’t think Putin ever planned on controlling the United States through Trump. He just wanted to get an ineffective President in office so America wouldn’t interfere with Russian ambitions. I’ll go one further and suggest that Putin didn’t even expect Trump to actually be elected. He just wanted to fuck with the election and hobble Hillary Clinton with enough manufactured scandal. I mean, he’s enjoying his legendary troll but if he’d actually planned this he would have selected someone who wasn’t a mercurial imbecile. Trump couldn’t maintain a working conspiracy to save his life. If Putin were sending him orders he’d accidentally retweet it to the world or brag about it during about a press conference about some other topic. Stranger ---
**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:** [April 13, 2018, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/19 "2018-04-13T05:59:21Z")
Is the best pipeline, Comrade. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260/20 "2019-01-13T10:15:17Z")
From today’s _Washington Post_: > [@https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-has-concealed-details-of-his-face-to-face-encounters-with-putin-from-senior-officials-in-administration/2019/01/12/65f6686c-1434-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8\_story.html](#): > > President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials, current and former U.S. officials said. > > Trump did so after a meeting with Putin in 2017 in Hamburg that was also attended by then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. U.S. officials learned of Trump’s actions when a White House adviser and a senior State Department official sought information from the interpreter beyond a readout shared by Tillerson. > > The constraints that Trump imposed are part of a broader pattern by the president of shielding his communications with Putin from public scrutiny and preventing even high-ranking officials in his own administration from fully knowing what he has told one of the United States’ main adversaries. > > As a result, U.S. officials said there is no detailed record, even in classified files, of Trump’s face-to-face interactions with the Russian leader at five locations over the past two years. Such a gap would be unusual in any presidency, let alone one that Russia sought to install through what U.S. intelligence agencies have described as an unprecedented campaign of election interference > … > Trump’s secrecy surrounding Putin “is not only unusual by historical standards, it is outrageous,” said Strobe Talbott, a former deputy secretary of state now at the Brookings Institution … [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-has-pipeline-to-putin/812260.md?page=2)