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Comment by Smeevy | Hacker News Reader

I think the problem here is that there isn't just one way in which Donald Trump is unduly influenced by Russia in ways that are difficult to explain. I can understand being skeptical, but there's several independent actions Trump has taken that are all inexplicably sympathetic to Russian interests.

Just some quick examples:

* Recommending American de-nuclearization while stating that Russia is no longer a threat to America.

* Dismantling cybersecurity programs that are intended to identify and counter Russian hacking efforts.

* Peace negotiations with Ukraine and Russia that require no concessions made by Russia.

All of these actions are being taken despite polling poorly with Americans. You could say that none of these definitively proves that there is Russian leverage over Trump and you would be technically correct. The flip side of that coin is that you also can't explain why these actions are in America's best interest.

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You forget that Trump's enemies are all married to this narrative of Trump as Russian asset. So I'm very clear that he will try to destroy as many as these people as possible during his second term. This includes all the people pushing support for Ukraine, which is seen as a Biden project. It has nothing to do with helping Russia and more with his personal preservation in power.

> Trump's enemies

Do you mean political rivals or do you have actual evidence the Democratic party is trying to kill him.

You don't have to be murderous to be an enemy. They clearly want to throw him in prison, so isn't that enough for someone in that position to call them enemies?

The definition of "enemy" is not limited to "people that are trying to kill you"

Respectfully, you're chalking a lot of this administration's questionable behavior that consistently benefits Russia up to temporarily aligned goals based on his fragile ego and fear of rightful imprisonment.

I'm not saying that you're wrong, but that is an awful lot of accidental benefit for Russia and precious few others. Far too much for my tastes.

> several independent actions Trump has taken that are all inexplicably sympathetic to Russian interests

Is it really inexplicable though? Or is it more plausible that you simply don't understand the motives, and probably haven't really tried?

You obviously understand how these actions benefit the country of which Donald Trump is the President.

Why don't you explain it to the rest of the class?

Well, we can't understand the motives, because Trump won't tell us, and even if he did, it's not like we shouldn't be skeptical of whatever he might say.

I do think another plausible explanation is that Trump has dictator envy and idolizes Putin, and so he tries to emulate him and do things that would make him happy.

But it's not clear how far something like that would go. I think it's reasonable to suspect that Putin has something that he can use as leverage over Trump, but that's of course near-impossible to prove at this point.

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