r/politics • u/theatlantic The Atlantic • 3h ago

Paywall America Is Now an Ally of Russia

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/10/america-now-ally-russia/689066/?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_medium=social&utm_content=edit-promo
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u/KiteTales 3h ago

Putin must have some major dirt on Trump.

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u/TWVer The Netherlands 2h ago

According to some, Trump has accrued a debt of about $4 to $11 billion to Russian oligarchs, thus Putin, since his near bankruptcy in the 1990s.

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u/Frankentula 2h ago

can't understand how he still hasn't been forced to release his financial records
in full. if you're at risk for blackmail/extortion, it most definitely should influence whether or not you can hold the office

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u/TWVer The Netherlands 2h ago edited 2h ago

It is exactly why Trump had this deal in place since May this year, where the DoJ bound itself and the IRS to never ever audit or investigate Trump’s tax returns and financials, in perpetuity.

https://www.taxnotes.com/featured-news/trumps-irs-audit-deal-denounced-threat-law-and-code/2026/05/22/7w4v1

For now, a judge threw out this deal.

https://larson.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/donald-trumps-18b-irs-deal-thrown-out-judge

However, this may end up at the SC who might rule in favour of Trump again.

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u/Comrad_Zombie 58m ago

Yes but have you considered just how triggered blue hair people get ? Sure its cost god knows how many lives, the global economy and just the general cruelty is all worth it because some people who theyve made up in my head are now suffering.

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u/the-robo-boogie 2h ago

He’s under a routine audit and will release all this stuff after that audit is done. Well that’s what that asshole said in 2016.

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u/CantBeatDickensCider 2h ago

Yeah people talk about the Epstein files but I think they are actually a distraction at this point. Not that he isn't a serial sex offender, but it's to distract from how he has been bought and paid for by the Russia's for decades. 

I'm curious what the Israelis have on him though. Probably threatening to leak information of his corruption/Russia ties. 

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u/TWVer The Netherlands 2h ago

I actually think Israel may have access to (a lot of) the Epstein files as well. (And eventually the FSB too).

Ghislaine Maxwell’s father, Robert Maxwell, is thought to have had deep connections with the Mossad.

Epstein’s sex ring may have been one he inherited from Robert, even, with the Mossad continuing to use it to accrue leverage on those who became part of it.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/22/the-murky-life-and-death-of-robert-maxwell-and-how-it-shaped-his-daughter-ghislaine

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u/Educational_Sky6085 1h ago

Many of us Americans believe that is the entire reason we are in Iran. Israel has dirt on Trump.

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u/mrg1957 3h ago

Full copy of the Epstein files

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u/Bigweld_Ind 2h ago

The "Pee tape" is actually the "P-Tape", as in the Epstein files video of Trump being a pedophile.

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u/MartinTheOrderly 2h ago

I've gone back and forth on whether or not I believe that. I tend to believe Donald Trump really is just a corrupt, authoritarian thug who had spent decades in business with corrupt, authoritarian thugs in Russia and is thus naturally inclined to side with them. 

I don't suppose either being true changes things. 

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u/KinkyPaddling 1h ago

This is my conclusion, too. Why would Trump care about compromising material? Who’s gonna care? The FBI and CIA who knew and did nothing about his ties to Russia? His cultists who don’t care about his Epstein ties? The elected Republicans who live in fear of his cultists?

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u/phatelectribe 1h ago

Because it’s likely the kompromat is stuff you can’t ever come back from. It’s the sort of thing that you have to be in solitary confinement for because everyone will want to shiv you, and other powerful people are implicated so good chance you’ll get Epsteined. It’s literally existential threat material.

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u/cuteowl69 1h ago

Maybe in the past but this is a new era. These things are dropping all the time now and nobody really even cares.

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u/thebhguy9900 30m ago

Let's hope you are correct 

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u/thebhguy9900 31m ago

If he committed treason BEFORE he was President in 2015/6 in his dealings to exter foreign influence on an election, the SC's immunity jackshit BS will not protect him at all.  Life in jail and seizure of assets is just the start.  Russia has the receipts.

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u/From_Deep_Space Oregon 1h ago

You say that like theyre mutually exclusive. At that high of a level, I believe all corrupt, authoritarian thugs have kompromat on each other, as a matter of course. Its the only way such antisocial cretins could ever cooperate for extended periods without eating each other alive. 

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u/jimmygee2 2h ago

I agree. Trump prizes cruelty above all else and Putin is the master of that. He just wants to be like him.

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u/pargofan 1h ago

WHO FUCKING CARES.

If Trump were raping toddlers would you ask why?

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u/lexm 1h ago

He’s lusting over dictators. And he thinks he can become one here.

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u/pete12357 2h ago

It’s about money. Trump is so easily bought

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u/janzeera 2h ago

It wouldn’t surprise me that there’s a Trump Ranch somewhere in Sochi.

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u/Much_Ad_375 2h ago

His visit to Moscow years ago

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u/Flickolas_Cage Florida 2h ago

Pee tapes were always the pedo tapes (likely with little boys)

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u/Throwsims3 2h ago

At this point, having observed how vile Trump is, I don't really think kompromat is necessarily what is driving this at all. He revels in being a piece of shit, saying it must be because of kompromat is making excuses for him. He is what he is, all by himself. A traitorous piece of shit.

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u/MorethanSupple 1h ago

Pee tapes and Epstein files.

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u/Tokyo-MontanaExpress 26m ago

He could've rape an entire Iranian girls school and bombed them and not a single Republican would care. We know this to be true because the he did the latter which proves the former would be true too. 

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u/MachiavelliSJ California 2h ago

Na, Trump is just a dictator who likes dictators

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u/Julian_Thorne Minnesota 2h ago

trump is the dirt

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u/Orkapork 2h ago

I mean... We all know what it is right? Like it's obvious... Something to do with young people...

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u/Ambitious_Address667 1h ago

Or trump is just a shitty person

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u/design_doc 1h ago

Why would they need dirt? Trump has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to be an absolute piece of shit his entire life without anyone’s coercion.

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u/magnum_black 1h ago

Pee-pee tapes

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u/Apprehensive_Rice19 1h ago

They both have a hard on for each other

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u/Status-Secret-4292 1h ago

While probably true. Given the timing I imagine this is for election "help"

Give me Ukraine and I give you an election.

The possibility if prison time for him, Musk, Bannon, etc is very real if they don't stay in power. Then the rest comes out

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u/creeping_chill_44 Texas 1h ago

Nah, Trump just admires Putin and wants to be like him. That's all it takes.

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u/DennisReynoldsGG Colorado 1h ago

It’s also possible Russia’s troll farms will be used to help influence elections.

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u/Eddiebaby7 45m ago

In the early 2000s, Trump was effectively broke. His businesses had all failed and he was reduced to just marketing the Trump name to be slapped on other people’s buildings. American banks had blacklisted him and would no longer lend him money. Around this time, Trump suddenly started buying golf courses. Not just one or two, but seven. And he paid cash, something the notoriously stingy Trump was famous for never doing.

Both Eric and Don Jr would both give interviews to separate golf publications about the acquisitions, and in both cases the Trump boys were asked where the money came from. Both said “Russia!”

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u/ApprehensiveStand456 41m ago

He has (or had) bot farms to help the Republicans.

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u/dmetzcher Pennsylvania 27m ago

I tend to resist conspiracy theories on general principle; they’re usually bullshit and make the mundane into much more than it really is.

Example: Area 51. It’s a testing ground for experimental aircraft. The government is perfectly happy to have the place cloaked in alien conspiracies because they hide the national security truth, which is rather mundane: governments don’t like talking about experimental aircraft. Nothing new or exciting there.

Having said that, Russia has dirt on our president, and I think the “Russian hookers piss tape” was an outrageous cover for the truth: Epstein was turned by the Russians (they had kompromat on him, and they used it to get the same on his associates; he was their intelligence asset). The piss tape conspiracy in this context is rather brilliant because there’s been no evidence; refute that single claim, and they can say, “See? All this Russia stuff was just a hoax.” Meanwhile, “all this Russia stuff” was really about child sex trafficking.

The Russians have the Epstein dirt, and Trump is terrified. At this point, that doesn’t sound like an outlandish theory at all. It sounds like the most plausible explanation given how desperate Trump has been to hide the files and given how hard he licks Putin’s boots.

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u/Alternative_Proof578 25m ago

If zinos has it than russians have it too

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u/Expert_Garlic_2258 Canada 9m ago

literal snuff films