The former head of Kazakhstanās intelligence service, Alnur Mussayev, recently claimed in a Facebook post that Donald Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987, when the 40-year-old real-estate mogul first visited Moscow.
The allegation would, if true, be a bombshell. Mussayev provides no documentary evidence ābut then how could he? He alleged that Trumpās file is in Vladimir Putinās hands.
Mussayev isnāt the only ex-KGB officer to have made such an assertion. Several years ago, Yuri Shvets, a former KGB major now resident in Washington, D.C., served as one of the key sources for Craig Ungerās best-selling book, āAmerican Kompromat: How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power, and Treachery.ā
Just after Mussayev made his claim, another ex-KGB officer living in France, Sergei Zhyrnov, categorically endorsed the allegations in an interview with a Ukrainian journalist. According to Zhyrnov, Trump would have been surrounded 24/7 by KGB operatives, including everyone from his cab driver to the maid servicing his hotel room. Zhyrnov said that Trumpās every move would have been recorded and documented, and that he could have been either caught in a āhoney trapā (āAll foreign-currency prostitutes were KGB ā one hundred percent,ā he said) or perhaps recorded bribing Moscow city officials in order to promote his idea of building a hotel in the Soviet capital.
None of these former KGB operatives has provided evidence, but the fact that three KGB agents located in different places and speaking at different times agree on the story suggests this possibility should not be dismissed out of hand. If thereās one thing weāve learned from the first Trump administration and from the initial weeks of the second, it is that everything, including what appears to be impossible, is possible.
Also lending credence to the allegations is the fact that kompromat on Trump would easily, simply and convincingly explain the presidentās animus toward NATO, Europe and Ukraine, his admiration of Vladimir Putin and his endorsement of authoritarian rule. One could even invoke āOccamās razor,ā the philosophical principle that claims that simple explanations should be preferred to complex ones.
We could then dispense with contorted explanations that focus on Trumpās mercurial and narcissistic personality on the one hand and American party realignments on the other. Indeed, even if true, these explanations could be accommodated as bells and whistles adorning the central narrative propounded by three KGB agents.
Naturally, Trump and his supporters will bristle. Surely, the three KGB agents are on somebodyās payroll. Who wouldnāt want to discredit the U.S. president? It could be the CIA or FBI, except that these are now firmly in the hands of Trump loyalists. Besides, would they have the ability to buy or coerce residents of Kazakhstan and France? Ditto for other Western intelligence services.
Perhaps itās Putin? But he surely has no interest in undermining a president who supports his policies toward Ukraine, NATO and Europe.
Somewhat more plausible would be an officer or officers within the Russian intelligence community who oppose Putin and Trumpās designs. This version seems unlikely, but only at first glance, since we know that Putinās seemingly impregnable regime is actually riven with cracks.
But why would a clandestine opposition make up a story and convince Shvets to spill the beans several years ago? Wouldnāt the dissidents know itās true?
Perhaps all three ex-KGB agents are simply lying, in the hope of attracting attention and bolstering their fame? A resident of Washington might have this motive, but a Kazakh and Frenchman?
What leads me to think that there might be something to the allegations is the fact that an acquaintance had a very similar experience at just the same time. A left-leaning ladiesā man, he was wined and dined in Moscow for several years in the late 1980s, courted by the ladies ā by his round-the-clock interpreter, as well as by a woman who approached him in a department store and invited him home.
Weāll probably never know the truth. But even with no slam-dunk evidence, the allegations should be, to say the least, disturbing, especially for the genuine patriots in the MAGA camp.
Back in the 1980s Trump was a rich, obvious narcissist who loved being the center of attention, took pride in his sexual conquests, liked younger girls (and bragged about it) and eastern European women, and was easily flattered and manipulated. In the late 1980s he overreached financially and got himself in trouble, so he would have had big debts. He had dodgy connections in NY and NJ and was prominent in American business circles. He had political ambitions and connections and was famous and influential. And he was visiting Moscow and trying to get some business going over there (why?), so he was ready to take Russian money to fund his ventures.
Is there anything about that that wouldnāt absolutely scream ārecruit this guyā to the KGB? The journalist talks as if this is a bit of an out-there suggestion, but it would actually be very surprising if they hadnāt at least attempted to recruit him. And the KGB wouldnāt do that by asking nicely: theyād find a way to gradually hook you in so you couldnāt say no. There was no shortage of ways to do this with Trump. So they probably at least tried.
And then do we think Trump would have been the kind of guy to make a principled stand, or to be smart enough to recognize whatās happening and not take the bait? Heās exactly the kind of guy who goes with whoever offers him the sweetest deal in the short term. You make him feel like heās winning, heās smart and great at business, all the while documenting his every compromising move, and only later does he realize that heās trapped. But then you say, go back to the USA and continue your life as before. Weāll help you in business and politics, you can have a successful life, everything will be good, and weāll let you know when you can help us.
So I disagree with the author that this is in any way an implausible suggestion. It seems far more implausible that the KGB would have decided not to try to recruit Trump, or that they would have failed in their attempt. The most likely thing is that Trump was recruited by the KGB, and we know that after the collapse of the USSR he took a lot of money from wealthy Russians, and sold real estate in deals that look a lot like money laundering, to Russians. How plausible is it that none of this was ex-KGB Putin or his allies ensuring that Trump stayed hooked in case he came in useful?
And then we know the Russians helped him in 2016 and everything Trump has done while President has been conspicuously well aligned with Putinās interests. Is it more likely this is all one big coincidence, or that he is indebted to Russia in a way that gives them a lot of leverage? And what could be better leverage than being able to reveal that they had him all along?
Itās not certain, but I disagree with the author that it even initially looks unlikely or implausible. Iād even say itās probable that Russia has been playing him for decades.
I almost totally agree, but there are two bits of what you wrote that Iād like to quibble about:
Why Trump was interested in Russian business opportunities in the late 1980s should be obvious: the Soviet Union was falling, and an entire economyās worth of state property was being privatized and sold off cheap to whoever happened to be in the right place at the right time to get themselves a piece. Thatās how all the Russian oligarchs were made, including Putin. Of fucking course Trump wanted a slice!
(By the way, does that remind you of anything?)
Speaking of not being smart enough to recognize whatās happening, I disagree with the āonly later does he realize that heās trappedā part. I think itās possible that heās so stupid that, to this day, he still doesnāt realize that heās Putinās asset. Instead, he might very well still think all the favors and quid-pro-quos he and Putin do is just him being smart and great at business.
To suggest that Trump has ever been coerced into doing their bidding implies that he had either the mental or moral capacity to resist doing it voluntarily, and I donāt think he deserves that much credit!