Here’s a handy guide to (some of) the men and women who are keeping an illegitimate President in office, and how they got there.
Jared Kushner, “The Deputy President” Â
You may have never heard Jared Kushner speak, but you’ve been influenced by the stealth data machine he built as a means of bringing his father-in-law to power. Kushner is by all accounts a power-hungry egomaniac who is really pulling the strings in the White House. Kushner introduced his father to Peter Thiel, the Facebook founder who helped guide his digital war efforts. He’s been a close family friend of Benjamin Netanyahu, and is believed to have engineered an alliance between his father, Bibi, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kushner is suspected of taking data stolen by Russia and other sources to build a database of likely voters, then used it to build a misinformation campaign helped by Russian-built bots, trolls and the fake new sites Breitbart and Infowars. He also had meetings with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Putin’s banker. He’s the son of a convicted criminal and used to run the real estate development firm built by his grandfather and father on dubious foreign cash sources.
Robert Mercer, “The Moneyman”
Mercer is the uber-wealthy owner of one of the world’s largest hedge funds, Renaissance Technologies. Mercer’s company owes $7 Bn in back taxes, but this didn’t stop him from spending millions in donations to conservative political action committees and on Trump’s campaign. Mercer also owns Cambridge Analytica, a psychographic targeting firm which identifies personality traits from your social media likes and dislikes. Cambridge Analytica is thought to have influenced the Brexit vote, worked for Ted Cruz’s campaign and was ultimately hired by Jared Kushner’s stealth data machine. Mercer also owns Breitbart News, which created a lot of the fake news peddled to stoke people’s fears and biases.
Rebekah Mercer, “The Matchmaker”
Robert Mercer’s daughter and the heiress to his fortune. A decade ago, Mercer was running a Hell’s Kitchen bakery. Now she’s advising the President. She introduced the President to his chief strategist, Stephen Bannon as well as adviser Kellyanne Conway, and is rumored to have influenced the appointments of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Steve Bannon, “The Propagandist”
Mercer’s man inside the White House. A notorious Islamaphobe and former chief propagandist at Breitbart News, he wants to wage a world war against Islam. When he threatened to resign because of infighting with Jared Kushner, it was Bekah Mercer who convinced him to stay.
Paul Manafort, “Putin’s Inside Man”
Manafort was forced to resign as Trump’s campaign manager because of his links to Ukraine, yet he continues to advise the President on Russia-Trump matters. Manafort was paid $10M by one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s key oligarchs to promote Russia’s interests in the US and abroad. Manafort is yet to register as a foreign agent, is under scrutiny for dodgy real estate deals in Manhattan and conveniently lived in Trump Tower while on Putin’s payroll.
Michael Flynn, “Putin’s Mole”
He served as Trump’s National Security Adviser for just 18 days after it was revealed he had been “compromised” by the Russians by then acting Attorney General Sally Yates. He was famously pictured sitting next to Vladimir Putin at a Russia Today gala in Moscow, has been paid by Russian firms and was working on behalf of the Turkish government to try abduct one of their political opponents living in the U.S. He retroactively registered as a foreign agent and is now widely believed to have turned against his former boss Donald Trump and could be talking to the FBI, turning into a State witness against his former boss.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, “Putin’s Man in State”
Tillerson is basically one of Putin’s oligarchs and his best friend in the West. Trump had never met Tillerson before hiring him in their first meeting. As a former Exxon CEO, he stands to benefit personally from the lifting of Russian sanctions which would result in resumed drilling in Russia’s Arctic Sea.
Erik Prince and Betsy DeVos, “The Go-Betweens”
The son and daughter of Industrialist Edgar Prince. Erik is a notorious mercenary who gave the world Blackwater, which killed Iraqi civilians during the war there. Betsy is Trump’s Education Secretary and recently supported a state’s rights to discriminate against LGBT students. They are super wealthy and made healthy donations to the Trump campaign super-PACS. Prince is said to have negotiated a back-channel between the Russians and the Trump organization engineered by a United Arab Emirates sheikh. Betsy is married into the DeVos family.
Which brings us to Betsy’s husband…
Dick DeVos, “The Connection”
DeVos is heir to the Amway empire and runs Spectrum Health. Spectrum Health is important because his company is the subject of a FBI probe into server links between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank. It’s believed the server could have been cross-checking a database of potential voters put together by Russian intelligence and Spectrum Health (using private data?). Such a database could have aided Jared Kushner, the Mercers and Breitbart in strategic targeting for their fake news machine primed by Russian bots and trolls.
Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislayak, “Putin’s Spy”
He worked Flynn, Sessions and probably everyone else on this list to buy them off with money in an effort to soften US policy to Russia. Trump invited him into the Oval Office with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. In that meeting, Trump handed confidential information and admitted to firing “nut-job” FBI Director James Comey for investigating him over Russia.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, “Obstructer-in-Chief”
He lied about meeting Russian Ambassador Kislyak and is supposed to be recused from all matters Russia but still fired FBI Director Comey. He also brought to the Trump campaign Carter Page, the man who allegedly took a bribe from Russian President Vladimir Putin (on behalf of Donald Trump) in exchange for the dropping of sanctions.
Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis), “The Defense”
These men are believed to have taken money from Russia and pro-Putin companies to fund the Republican campaign efforts in 2016. Here’s a short list of Republican Congressmen involved in the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees investigating Trump-Russia who are believed to have received money from Russia or their allies: Congressmen Devin Nunes (R-CA), Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and Senators Richard Burr (R-NC), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Tom Cotton (R-AK), and John Cornyn (R-TX).
So if you don’t know, now you know.
You guys are such drama queens. May I remind you that freedom of the press does not guarantee access to the Administration. You can write whatever you want within the boundaries of protected speech. Furthermore, you are accommodated by the President as a courtesy which you may think is an obligation. You should pay rent on any space you occupy in the White House and fly commercial rather than on Air Force One. This is not a battle you are waging on the President, it’s a war. One you cannot win despite whatever wimps are in the House and Senate to help you. Nervous Congressmen/Congresswomen are cowering in the dark because of your insane accusations. American public will support Trump’s agenda in 2018 despite your subrogation of the truth.
pick up your czeck at the kremlin asswipe!
This is all a bunch if bullshit lies..you idiots will stop at nothing and do k lower than The bowels of hell to bring down President Trump. If you’d bothered to look this hard I to all the illegal crap that Obama was invved in prior to and while he was president you would never have reported it anyway cause he is your boy toy hook, line and sinker !! I don’t care how much fake news and Russian influenced crap was out there, I WOULD NEVER HAVE VOTED FOR HILLARY CLI NTON ANYWAY, NEVER EVER EVER EVER. So put that in your propagandist pipe and smoke it or stuff it where the sun don’t shine !! Get over it, you losers lost..fair and square, period, end of subject. You are actually stupid enough to not admit or know the same exact type of shit and type of people were involved in both elections favoring Obama, and even elections further back than his..? Get your head out of your asses and wake up..this is nothing new, been going on for decades..our system may not be perfect, and bad players and big money has and always will be part of it, but its better than anywhere else, and your bullshit you peddle does no one any good. So make yourself useful, and get a real job, and have to live the way the rest of us do… putting God and country and family first, the rest of you are worthless… Go crawl back into the hole from which you come.
It’s amazing to me that, over a year into this disgusting administration, a third or more of Idiot Nation still support this unhinged sociopath and common pervert. It’s beginning to look a lot like fascism.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Get used to living in a nation in ruins.
Tom Degan
Interesting piece, thank you.
With all the talk of targeting via Facebook and Cambridge Analytica no one else has mentioned the potential use of US medical records [via Dick Devos] to aid with the Trump campaign. I wonder what other info sources have been used.