Zeteo

Zeteo

Home
Mehdi Unfiltered
We’re Not Kidding
Shows
Columns
Documentaries
Book Club
Shop
Donate To Zeteo
About

Share this post

Zeteo
Zeteo
Why Was Trump’s Own National Security Adviser So Stumped by Putin’s Hold on Trump?
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
The Stakes with John Harwood

Why Was Trump’s Own National Security Adviser So Stumped by Putin’s Hold on Trump?

There’s no mystery about Trump's deference to the Russian leader. Here's an abridged list of potential reasons for it.

John Harwood's avatar
John Harwood
Aug 28, 2024
∙ Paid
185

Share this post

Zeteo
Zeteo
Why Was Trump’s Own National Security Adviser So Stumped by Putin’s Hold on Trump?
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
20
26
Share
Trump speaks to Putin at APEC Economic Leaders’ meeting in Vietnam, on Nov. 11, 2017. Photo by Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images

Donald Trump’s former national security adviser says he was mystified by Vladimir Putin's hold on his old boss. That's mystifying.

In a new book, retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster relates the mystery he carried with him as he left the administration – one he confided to his wife in early 2018.

“After over a year in this job,” he told her, “I cannot understand [Vladimir] Putin’s hold on Trump.”

It sounds as if McMaster decided to play diplomatically dumb. There’s nothing mysterious about Putin’s hold on Trump at all.

As his careers in business and politics have demonstrated, Trump has no discernible beliefs or scruples. He approaches life as a series of transactions, guided exclusively by the interests of his bank account, his ego, or both.

Trump’s Dealings With Putin’s Russia

Trump has conducted many transactions, over many years, with Putin’s Russia. Let’s review a few of them:

Trump SoHo

In 2006, the former president’s partners in the Trump SoHo hotel and condo project included a former official of the Soviet Union and a Russian who had confessed to felony fraud involving organized crime.

Real Estate

In 2008, Donald Trump Jr. described the family business this way at a real estate conference: “In terms of high-end product influx into the US, Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of our assets…We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”

One especially lucrative example came in Florida that year. A Russian oligarch paid Trump $95 million for a Palm Beach mansion – a mansion Trump had bought for $41 million just four years earlier.

“I will demand that he put up the American flag – and the Russian flag can fly right under it,” Trump told CNBC at the time. His former lawyer, Michael Cohen, later wrote in his book that “Trump was convinced the real buyer of that house was Vladimir Putin” since he considered the oligarchs “just fronts for Putin.”

Golf Courses and Miss Universe

When American banks would not supply sufficient capital for Trump golf courses, the former president’s son, Eric, reportedly told a journalist in 2013 that Russian financiers would. (Eric Trump later denied saying that.)

This post is for paid subscribers

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Zeteo
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share

Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More