"Trump-Russia", by which people mean a variety of different ideas and explanatory theories ranging from "omg Agent Krasnov!" to "senior citizen being steamrolled by Putin", has never been about any kind of secret or non-public information.
It's because of what he's done. (🧵)
It's because of what he's done. (🧵)
In 2016, the only substantive change that the Trump campaign wanted made to the Republican Party platform was support for lethal aid to Ukraine.
npr.org/2017/12/04/568…
npr.org/2017/12/04/568…
In 2017, once elected, Trump met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak alone in the Oval Office a day after firing James Comey because he wouldn't offer Trump public assurances that he wasn't involved with Russia.
npr.org/sections/thetw…
npr.org/sections/thetw…
In 2019, Trump tried to condition aid to Ukraine on the provision of fabricated Hunter Biden dirt, which later resulted in his first impeachment.
npr.org/2019/09/25/764…
npr.org/2019/09/25/764…
In 2024, as a disgraced out-of-office twice-impeached felon Trump was responsible for Republicans blocking a bipartisan border-security-for-Ukraine-aid compromise.
U.S. intelligence agencies and major news outlets also broke news this year of Russian interference in the American election, always attacking Biden or Harris and supporting Trump.
In 2025, Trump told Ukraine that the aid we've sent them was actually a loan and tried to bully them into a neo-colonialist deal where they surrender their mineral rights to the U.S. as well as conceding territory to Russia.
And, now we're voting alongside Russia, and Belarus, and literally against the rest of the civilized world that we're supposed to lead, on a U.N. vote regarding Ukraine.
These are simply facts.
These are simply facts.
You don't need a background in intelligence, or a security clearance, or really even very good research skills to know all these facts, because they are all large, public, officially attested-to or -documented events. All I'm doing is putting them in a row, figuratively speaking.
The specific causation here, I don't care - pee tape, 1980s compromise, 1990s capital flight & laundering, Melania, Felix Sater, Trump Tower, whatever. They are irrelevant to the big, obvious, amply-documented, public facts that we can all agree to, and to the practical upshot.
Before November 2024, the primary practical importance to all of us was, let's not vote that guy into the damn Presidency.
Now, I think, it's a lot more like "realize the stakes and educate other people on them before it's too late".
Now, I think, it's a lot more like "realize the stakes and educate other people on them before it's too late".
And for people outside the country, like...
Whatever you think he's going to do next on Ukraine, which, I'll admit myself having read news about this asshole for the past 8 years, is unpredictable
Do you think it's going to be good or bad?
Yeah.
That's what's predictable.
Whatever you think he's going to do next on Ukraine, which, I'll admit myself having read news about this asshole for the past 8 years, is unpredictable
Do you think it's going to be good or bad?
Yeah.
That's what's predictable.
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