Trump’s Behavior Borders on Treason

Donald Trump was in business negotiations with the Russians, even after he was a presidential candidate. That was politically disastrous and made him susceptible to blackmail – perhaps he remains so even today.

Of course, Donald Trump wanted to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. He knew how popular his luxury apartments were with Russians. So, there was nothing so obvious as the idea of erecting a gold leaf-plated tower in Russia’s capital. In order to see that the permits would be approved, Trump and his people considered gifting the penthouse to Russian President Vladimir Putin personally. A small favor valued at $50 million.

That would not be worth mentioning if the construction talks had taken place sometime over the past 10 or 20 years. Trump was previously a real estate developer and a vacuous TV personality; planting his name on skyscrapers was his business model.

It would also not have been a problem if the negotiations on the tower had lasted only until January 2016 and had then been broken off for lack of Russian interest. At that time, Trump was just one of a dozen Republicans who wanted to become president. Nobody thought he had much of a chance to survive the primaries.

But the assertions about the business talks were a blatant lie, as we have now learned from the admissions by Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen. The Kremlin actually responded to Trump’s advances, and Trump was negotiating with the Russians until at least June 2016. By that point, however, it was clear that Trump would be running for the White House as the Republican nominee. That means that the Republican presidential candidate was talking to the government of a rival, if not hostile, country about a private construction project that would net himself and his contacts millions.

You don’t need much imagination to understand why Trump was so generous about Putin at that time. He didn’t want his beautiful Moscow business to be derailed by his candidacy at home, particularly since he probably expected to lose the U.S. election in any case.

“There was a good chance that I wouldn’t have won … and why should I lose lots of opportunities?” he asked innocently on Thursday, presumably telling the truth for a change.

But, of course, that’s not the end of the matter. Whether Trump – “Individual 1″ as he is always referred to in court documents – broke the law remains to be seen; politically speaking, his behavior was disastrous and almost borders on treason. The current president of the United States placed his personal business interests over the security interests of his country. Then he tried to cover it up: He lied to voters when he assured them he wouldn’t do business in Russia. And he had his lawyer lie to Congress when he claimed that negotiations with Moscow had ended in January 2016.

Moreover, for two years, Trump, as president, has been exposed to the risk that his Russian colleague Putin, who knows the truth, will blow the whistle on the fraud. Trump has de facto been susceptible to blackmail this whole time. And there’s no guarantee that he isn’t still.