# What happens if Trump absconds to Russia? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [June 17, 2023, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-trump-absconds-to-russia/985656 "2023-06-17T03:17:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-trump-absconds-to-russia/985656/41 "2023-06-19T06:04:40Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > > [@sweeteviljesus](#): > > > > Given that he’d probably be going from memory (unless there are a bunch of documents still missing) and supposedly he didn’t pay much attention in intel briefings, how much of a threat would he really be? > > There are documents still missing: [https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/02/politics/donald-trump-iran-subpoena/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/02/politics/donald-trump-iran-subpoena/index.html) Some of them may be in New Jersey. But is it really that big a deal? I’m not US intelligence analyst. But at one time Tom Nichols was. Emphasis added: > > > To understand the severity of the charges against Trump, consider a thought experiment: Imagine that Vladimir Putin is one day driven from the Kremlin, perhaps in a coup or in the face of a popular revolt. He jumps into his limousine and heads for self-imposed exile in a remote dacha. His trunk is full of secret documents that he decided belong to him, including details of the Russian nuclear deterrent and Russia’s [military weaknesses](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/09/nyregion/trump-indictment-highlights.html). > > Now imagine how valuable those boxes would be to any intelligence organization in the world. I spent the early years of my career analyzing Soviet and Russian documents as an academic Sovietologist, and I would have loved to see such materials. _Small, seemingly trivial details—something as innocuous as a desk calendar or a notepad—might not mean much to a layperson, but to a professional, they could be pure gold._ To get even a peek at such Russian materials would be an intelligence triumph. > > He’s discussing documents, but I trust the Russians would bug Trump’s Dacha and send out a rotating set glad handlers to pal around with him. A careless and loose lipped man like Trump would be great for Putin, though not especially for Russia. **There’s not much Trump can offer in the way of technology or sustainable business models.** > > [Trump’s Indictment Reveals a National-Security Nightmare - The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/06/trumps-indictment-reveals-a-national-security-nightmare/674362/) Do you not think that Trump has electronic copies of the documents he stole stashed away on a portable hard drive hidden somewhere? Personally, I think Trump just may have a mechanism to “buy his way” into further favour with Putin. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-trump-absconds-to-russia/985656/42 "2023-06-19T09:45:45Z")
> [@Mallard](#): > > Do you not think that Trump has electronic copies of the documents he stole stashed away on a portable hard drive hidden somewhere? Donald “Covfefe” Trump? I could be wrong because I don’t personally know the man but I always had the impression that Trump wasn’t particularly tech savvy. He would learn to use the bits that were useful to him, but otherwise he had people for the stuff he didn’t want to be bothered with. There are exceptions, but by and large people of his generation might use the internet or a smart phone but they don’t have a good understanding of them and don’t think along the lines you are assuming. I’m not aware of anything indicating Trump is one of the exceptions. No, I don’t think he has a portable hard drive, or thumb drive, with valuable intel on it. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-trump-absconds-to-russia/985656/43 "2023-06-19T14:57:46Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I always had the impression that Trump wasn’t particularly tech savvy He isn’t, but surely at least one of the less stupid members of his inner circle is capable of (for example) scanning documents and putting the files on a thumb drive. They might or might not tell him (perhaps depending on whether or not they felt like explaining the complexities of the process to him), but they’d figure that if he lost the documents or couldn’t take them where he was going he’d be pleased to have the backup presented to him and probably reward\* whoever thought of it. \*I said “less stupid”, not “smart”. ---
**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:** [June 19, 2023, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-trump-absconds-to-russia/985656/44 "2023-06-19T15:09:42Z")
Not gonna happen, he’d miss his MAGAmaniacs too much. But if it did, what would happen would be dancing in the streets for 50% of the population and wailing and gnashing of teeth for 25% of the population. The rest wouldn’t give two shits. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-trump-absconds-to-russia/985656/45 "2023-06-19T18:41:11Z")
Whether or not Trump has scanned the contents of his precious [beautiful mind boxes](https://www.salon.com/2023/06/16/msnbc-host-trumps-deeply-weird-obsession-with-his-boxes-suggests-this-is-all-about-the-money/) and put them into a flash drive (possible but not probable by my reckoning) the military secrets contained therein aren’t going to transform a middle income resource extraction economy into a first world nation. Ukraine wants to join the developed world. Russia’s rulers aspire to be nothing more than a gas station with nukes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-trump-absconds-to-russia/985656.md?page=2)