# Trump was recruited as Russian spy codenamed "Krasnov" in 1987 **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [February 23, 2025, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697 "2025-02-23T16:31:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/1 "2025-02-23T16:31:25Z")
A former KGB officer claims that Trump was recruited as a Russian spy in 1987 during his visit to the Soviet Union. His code name was “Krasnov.” > **[Was Donald Trump a Russian spy in 1987? Bizarre allegations by ex-KGB officer...](https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/was-donald-trump-a-russian-spy-in-1987-bizarre-allegations-by-ex-kgb-officer-will-surprise-you/articleshow/118487146.cms?from=mdr)** > > A former KGB officer claims Donald Trump was recruited as a Russian spy in 1987, codenamed 'Krasnov'. Trump allegedly became an asset during a visit to the Soviet Union, with the KGB targeting influential Western figures. Ex-White House officials... > **[‘Trump Recruited as Moscow Asset,’ Says Ex-KGB Spy Chief](https://www.kyivpost.com/post/47630)** > > Alnur Mussayev, former head of Kazakhstan’s security service, who rose up the ranks of the Soviet KGB, claims Moscow groomed Trump under pseudonym “Krasnov” in 1987. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/2 "2025-02-23T16:35:03Z")
I like this. I like it, frankly, even if it isn’t true. This is the kind of fake news we need! My only quibble is… wouldn’t the KGB recruit some smarter for a role like this? And someone who was capable of showing loyalty (or at least pretending to show it even if the didn’t feel it) for an organization or a mission? IOW would a narcissist make an effective spy? But if this possibility is explored in a miniseries, I will certainly watch it. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/3 "2025-02-23T16:38:10Z")
As far as Trump being an actual spy, it’s laughable to imagine anyone entrusting Trump with executing any kind of intelligence-gathering plan requiring a modicum of judgment, discretion, or confidentiality. Trump isn’t a spy. However, I have absolutely no problem believing Trump has been a Russian asset since 1987. He’s stupid, narcissistic, faithless, wealthy, involved in criminal enterprises. He’s a blackmail target who is flypaper for other blackmail targets. He would be the gift that keeps on giving for any foreign intelligence service, but he’s absolutely not the brains of the operation. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/4 "2025-02-23T16:38:27Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > My only quibble is… wouldn’t the KGB recruit some smarter for a role like this? Gosh, no. Why would they? The spy game isn’t full of geniuses. Trump is EXACTLY the kind of person you’d target. He is a weak man, and weakness is easily manipulated. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/5 "2025-02-23T16:42:17Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I like it, frankly, even if it isn’t true. This is the kind of fake news we need! I like it but I’m pretty dubious. And, if it’s true, it would have been a whole lot more useful to say so, say, early in 2016. Or at least early in 2024; though I think it would have had better chance of getting traction early in 2016, before the primaries. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/6 "2025-02-23T16:49:41Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > My only quibble is… wouldn’t the KGB recruit some smarter for a role like this? And someone who was capable of showing loyalty (or at least pretending to show it even if the didn’t feel it) for an organization or a mission? IOW would a narcissist make an effective spy? My best guess is the Russians tried to recruit anyone they thought might be able to help them in some way. While I don’t think Trump was actually a spy, having an American businessman willing to voice a pro-Soviet business policy was good for the Soviet Union. They built a friendly relationship with Trump in the 1980s and that friendship became stronger when Russians started funneling money into his businesses in the 1990s. The Russians just got extremely lucky with Trump as I don’t think they ever expected him to rise to such political prominence. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/7 "2025-02-23T16:51:05Z")
One of my ‘canned’ posts that seems to fit well here: _“There have been various attempts to explain why people become spies. One common theory is summed up by the acronym MICE: Money, Ideology, Compromise or Coercion , and Ego or Extortion.”_ I have friends who are smart and highly educated who – early – supported Trump on the theory that his money meant he couldn’t be bought. He has dramatically less money (ie, far more debt) than those people thought, and far more ego/deep-seated insecurity than any of us could possibly have imagined. He is, was, and always will be a one-man threat to national security. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/8 "2025-02-23T20:13:29Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > I have friends who are smart and highly educated who – early – supported Trump on the theory that his money meant he couldn’t be bought. That’s never a good assumption. While some people have lots of money just because they inherited it, and some people have lots of money because they produced something at the right moment in time – most people who have lots of money, especially if they have it for very long, have lots of money because they really really love money (and had some luck and often work on top of that.) And people who really really love money – and/or are terrified of not having enough – never, never think they have enough of it. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/9 "2025-02-23T21:30:39Z")
Knowing what we know about Trump now, if he was a spy, he likely never had any idea he was being used. In his mind it was probably something like “My Russian friends are very nice to me because they like how smart I am and all the things that I know”. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/10 "2025-02-23T21:37:10Z")
Wouldn’t take much to manipulate this guy- a little flattery, and access to hot underwear models. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/11 "2025-02-23T23:21:08Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > “My Russian friends are very nice to me because they like how smart I am and all the things that I know”. Just what exactly did he know that would be useful to them, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/12 "2025-02-23T23:27:02Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Just what exactly did he know that would be useful to them, anyway? How stupid the average American voter is? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/13 "2025-02-23T23:28:13Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Knowing what we know about Trump now, if he was a spy, he likely never had any idea he was being used. “Asset” or “contact” is the correct term of art. A spy _deliberately_ engages in acts of, or in support of, espionage. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/14 "2025-02-23T23:33:13Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Just what exactly did he know that would be useful to them Inside knowledge of the New York real estate world could possibly be useful to someone who intended to disrupt things, and someone as easily suggestible as him could probably be prodded into doing things that advance their ends without his realizing it. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/15 "2025-02-23T23:43:42Z")
Didn’t they already make a [movie](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1130080/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk) about this sort of thing? ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2025, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/16 "2025-02-24T01:22:45Z")
There’s also a book: > **[Did a 1980s Spy Novel Inspire Trump’s Love For Russia — And His Run For...](https://forward.com/culture/361019/did-a-1980s-spy-novel-inspire-trumps-love-for-russia-and-his-run-for-presid/)** > > In Ted Allbeury's "The Twentieth Day of January," an East Coast elite-turned-populist becomes President with Russia's help. Sound familiar? According to the linked article, it is Trump’s favorite book. Huh, how about that? I didn’t know Trump could read. Trump also reminds me of later seasons of Homeland where Carrie (the lead) thinks she’s on top of everything but on the Russian org charts she’s labelled “useful idiot”. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2025, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/17 "2025-02-24T02:10:59Z")
Trump has never read a book. Never. Ever. People have been saying for years that Tulsi Gabbard was a Russian asset, and she’s now Director of National Intelligence. Who but a Russian asset would do that? Trump has also canned the people who look for foreign interference in elections. Would a non-asset do that? Calling Trump a fascist never made sense to me. That requires thought. Doing all this harm as a Russian asset explains pretty much everything. Is he really? Does it make any difference at this point? If Putin has been resurrected from a hapless failure of a ruined government who couldn’t support allies like Syria when crisis overtook them to a powerful leader that makes European governments shake abd grovel, then the epithet given to the enabler hardly matters. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2025, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/18 "2025-02-24T02:39:21Z")
The tendency is for Trumpy elected authoritarians leaders in Europe to be relatively pro-Russian. Think of Viktor Orbán in Hungry. And Robert Fico in Slovakia. Calin Georgescu, who arguably won the last Romanian election, fits. Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey has played both sides but mostly fits. Marine Le Pen also fits, although she has not won elections. Alternative for Germany, which will lose today’s elections in Germany, is a party in this category. Giorgia Meloni in Italy is not pro-Russian, but one can argue that she is halfway Trumpy/authoritrian, and half-way to being pro-Russian.She did endorse Vance’s speech about wokeness being more important than Russian expansionism. Are all these explained by the leaders being Russian assets? That seems implausible to me. More likely, if you aspire to be a Putin type of leader, it will lead you to be less sympathetic to Ukraine and more positive towards Russia. Could Trump’s Czechoslovak first wife have gotten her husband on a list of communist assets? Sure, but I think, with low certainty, that he’s doing this stuff voluntarily. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2025, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/19 "2025-02-24T02:53:53Z")
> [@](#): > > I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another. . . . I’m sick of Joe Biden focusing on the border of a country I don’t care about – [JD Vance, February 2022](https://www.businessinsider.com/gop-candidate-jd-vance-i-dont-care-what-happens-ukraine-2022-2) Do we think that Trump forced him to say that? I do not. And I do not think Vance is a Russian paid-for asset, and certainly not three years ago. Authoritarian populists prefer the Putin sort of government to the Western European social democracy model that Ukraine aspires to. While Russian intelligence services may give this ideology a little boost, most of it is coming from the MAGA psychology. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2025, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697/20 "2025-02-24T15:05:45Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Just what exactly did he know that would be useful to them, anyway? Not a spy in the covert operative sense, but maybe Trump was identified as a tool to launder money by corrupt Soviet officials, even before the fall of the Soviet Union. [Old article from 2018] Since the fall of the Soviet Union: [How Russian Money Helped Save Trump’s Business](https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/21/how-russian-money-helped-save-trumps-business/) _After his financial disasters two decades ago, no U.S. bank would touch him. Then foreign money began flowing in._ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-was-recruited-as-russian-spy-codenamed-krasnov-in-1987/1014697.md?page=2)