What drove Trump into the arms of the Russians?

Bankruptcy and debt.

R1 ended this thread.

And KGB's Mata Haris (i.e. Ivana et al.)

La Cosa Nostra collects every single last penny owed to them. With interest.

Money. Always money or some social currency. It’s always that simple with the orange bitch.

Putin has been financing Dump thru Deutsche Bank for years. Very old news.

Follow the money

R7, oh, we will. ;)

As others have said, it's the money... but ultimately what drove Shitler into Russian arms was the fact that he's a lousy businessman who has achieved "success" through bankruptcy, fraud and conning people. You know what's hard? Getting a gaming license. You know what's harder? Losing that license so badly that the gaming commission won't give you another chance, even when you own one of the largest hotels (without a casino because you can't be associated in any way with a casino) in Las Vegas. I'd have loved to been a fly on the wall in the Kremlin when the Nevada Gaming Commission denied him; how do you say "how's he ever going to be able to repay our loans"? in Russian? Sadly, they figured that one out.

MAGAts will try to say that he's successful because his name is all over the place and he does a good job of conning people into believing his bullshit. What MAGAts fail to recognize is that when you're born into wealth, success has a different meaning. Wealthy people don't fail and then suffer the consequences; they fail, write it off their taxes, and then do something else. The average businessman has one chance in their life to build a successful company and upon failing, works for years to pay off the debt. I've seen the children of wealthy families fail, fail again, fail a third time, and still be given the opportunity (money) to try again.

It's been shown over and over that if Donald had taken his inheritance and put it in an index fund, he'd be richer today (well, until he "won" the second time which opened the doors to a grift so large we'll probably never be able to get a real number on how much he's stealing). Six bankruptcies, 34 felonies, and a banking system that won't work with him unless they are forced... not the legacy of "success" under any definition.

They started paying him back when it was stil lthe Soviet Union.

His parents realized they had a little psychopath on their hands and sent him to that military academy which was just a reform school for rich kids. I'm sure the actual soldiers who had killed Nazis, came home and turned into Trump's teachers had his number immediately and strove to break him down. I'm sure he was easy to loathe and stupid as hell too. He's hated all things US military since then. That all certainly explains his soft spot for Russians, Nazis and North Koreans.

I think he genuinely admires Putin's ability to steal/extort billions and get away with it. Money is the only thing that pig fuckers respects.

THE Russians, OP? lol

It's my suspicion that when the government took out the Italian Mafia they turned a blind eye to the Russian Mafia that took over in a grander way than the Italians did. I'm from nyc and Italians wouldn't lend money to trump. They didn't want to do any business with him.

R12 - he also admires that Pootie is a dictator who gets away with other crimes, too, like murdering his opponents and critics. Dump has many high windows in Dump Tower… the best high windows.

Excellent summation r9.

Trump has pulled off a truly remarkable thing.

He never overestimated the ability of his rubes to recognize a Smoke & Mirrors Con Job of Historic Proportions when it's right before their very eyes and ears.

Add in just general ignorance, ingrained bigotry and sexism and among American voters, and there you have it.

Now cue our resident DL Trump Ass Lickers to hasten to take my words and say, "See? This is why Democrats lose. It doesn't help to call Trump voters stupid."

You ARE Stupid. You ARE a criminal coddler as long as it's Trump.

Trump sized you up, like any Con Man does, and knew you were ripe for the picking.

I take it as compliment he didn't declare himself a Democrat when he decided to run to be the POTUS.

He declared himself a Republican, knowing he could get by with his shit.