Expert shares Trump's two-word nickname as he reveals Russia's honest opinion on president
In June 2015, shortly after Donald Trump declared his intention to run for the White House the following year, certain figures within America's intelligence apparatus started scrutinising the controversial business mogul's past.
In the subsequent years, numerous allegations surfaced suggesting Trump had received financial backing, or at least substantial assistance, from the Russian state. Writers Craig Unger and Luke Harding have both published books claiming that Trump was groomed as a Kremlin operative following his marriage to Czech model Ivana Zelnickova.
However, the reality of the situation is far more straightforward, and considerably harsher, according to former White House national security adviser John Bolton.
Speaking in a new British documentary examining Trump, Bolton revealed: "Many alumni of the U.S. intelligence community have said to me that they think that Trump has been recruited by the Kremlin. I don't think so. I think he is a useful idiot."
The phrase "useful idiot" became popular during the Cold War era, describing someone who naively advanced Soviet objectives without recognising they were being manipulated. Bolton, with a career spanning four US presidents, made a startling claim in the documentary Trump: Moscow's Man In The White House, suggesting that Vladimir Putin, a seasoned former intelligence operative, has Trump wrapped around his finger: "I think Putin can get him in the place he wants to," he said.
"He's manipulable and, does the work that the Russians want without ever knowing it."
He elaborated on why intelligence experts, who have successfully turned numerous Russian officials into informants, believe Trump is acting precisely as a Russian asset would. However, Bolton posits that Putin is exploiting Trump's ego for strategic gain rather than financial reward.
Trump, for his part, has been less than complimentary about Bolton, his former 25th United States ambassador to the United Nations, branding him "a real dope" and "a nut job."
Yuri Shvets, a former KGB agent reportedly consulted by Craig Unger for his book "American Kompromat," drew parallels between Trump and the infamous Cambridge Five – a quintet of idealistic upper-class British spies who passed secrets to the KGB over many years.
Addressing claims that he has shown excessive favour towards Russian interests, including allegedly dismissing CIA intelligence on Russian espionage, Trump has consistently maintained that the Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election, widely referred to as The Mueller Report, "completely exonerated" him.
However, the report explicitly states that Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election was unlawful and took place "in sweeping and systematic fashion."
The document also documented numerous connections between Trump's associates and Russian agents.
The investigation detailed how a Russian "troll farm" established bogus social media profiles to saturate online platforms with pro-Trump and anti-Clinton material.
Among those identified in the report was Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group leader who later mounted a brief mutiny against Putin in 2023 before his death in suspicious circumstances.
Mueller's findings led to criminal proceedings against 34 people and three organisations, resulting in eight guilty pleas and one trial conviction. The report stopped short of determining whether Trump had obstructed justice, in part because of Justice Department policy preventing federal prosecution of a serving president.
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