After ProPublica reported that a Russian oligarch had financed wedding festivities for Donald Trump Jr., his bride confirmed the facts but not their obvious significance.
“It was an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend,” a statement on Bettina Trump’s Instagram said. Dismissing suggestions of any quid pro quo, the statement added: “Generosity doesn’t automatically come with an agenda.”
President Donald Trump and his family typically explain their suspicious relations with Russia that way. To an astonishing degree, nothing to see here has worked. Indeed, in Trump’s long career as a con man, his hustle with Vladimir Putin stands alone.
Their undeclared alliance has proven infinitely more consequential than Trump fleecing students of his “university,” stiffing creditors, or escaping the Vietnam draft. Reciprocal back-scratching has helped him gain wealth and power, corrupted his political party, and boosted an authoritarian adversary while weakening America and the free world.
The two men’s audacity begs the question: how did they pull this off?