In Trump’s first two months in office, several of his closest staffers and inner circle have been found to have connections and communications with Russia secretly- including Trump himself. Slowly, the list is growing as more and more Trump advisors and staffers are found to be deeply connected with both Russian businesses and the Russian government itself.

Just recently, it was discovered that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a top advisor, was found to have had an undisclosed meeting with the CEO of ‘the bank that financed Vladimir Putin’s grandest ambitions’. The bank, Vnesheconombank, is state owned and directly tied to Putin and the Russian government as the states development bank. The secretive meeting was in December 2016 with Sergey Gorkov, the Vnesheconombank CEO. Gorkov was directly appointed by Putin as CEO, and Putin is said to have took “personal control over key lending decisions” according to Bloomberg.

Michael Flynn was briefly Trump’s National Security Advisor, until revelations in February about his ties with Russia came to light, forcing Trump to fire him. Flynn was found to have had an undisclosed meeting as a private citizen with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about the sanctions on Russia imposed by the Obama Administration, and was also found to have attended a paid appearance alongside Vladimir Putin at an anniversary party in a Kremlin-funded Network, which violates the emoluments clause prohibiting any federal officer from receiving payment from any foreign country without Congressional approval.

Another example of a close Trump associate is Paul Manafort, he was the campaign manager for Trump until he resigned in August. Manafort was is alleged to have modified the GOP platform on some issues to benefit Russia and was found to have worked closely with Putin in the business world where they signed a $10 million annual contract starting in 2006 and ending in 2016. Manafort also came under fire for having a close relationship with a Russian Army-trained linguist turned-Ukrainian political operative and the conflict of interest that came with that.

The Trump campaign and President himself are under fire for having possible relations with Russia and Putin. US intelligence agencies were able to intercept repeated calls and communication between the Trump campaign staff and Russian intelligence officials back in February, they are investigating possible collusion and are reportedly concerned about the timing and volume of communications between the campaign staff and Russian intelligence.

Now, in March, the FBI recently announced an investigation into Trump over connections to Russia and possible political favours exchanged between the two in order to give Trump an advantage over Hillary in the election. Allegations are that Trump collaborated with Russian intelligence to tamper with the US elections using hacking and other means to empower Trump to win the elections.

Now, with a track record of four top Trump staffers in controversy over Russia scandals, the whole entire Trump campaign communicating frequently with Russian intelligence, and Trump himself under FBI investigation for collaborating with Russia to tamper US elections- we’re supposed to believe this is all just one big coincidence? I’m sorry, I don’t buy it.

---

Most people know about Donald Trump’s real estate empire, but do you know about his dirty backdealings and FBI investigations into his empire? Or when he paid 300 undocumented Polish workers in Vodka while forcing them to cut through live electrical wire? In our book review of Donald Trump: The Candidate, we dig into these mostly unknown stories about Donald Trump’s dirty business empire. Read here to learn our President’s shady real estate dealings!