Russian Connections Driven By Trump's Grifter Campaign

In retrospect, it seems pretty clear that the Trump campaign was simply a grift machine for everyone involved and that no one in the campaign actually had any belief that Trump would actually win the election. The whole campaign was just an opportunity to sell access and set everyone up to bank even more money on the chicken circuit, by selling more access, and in punditry after the election. And part of the reason they were all grifters is that Trump was not going to pay them anyway, as this was a marketing exercise for Trump and he did not need to pay campaign staff for that. And the Russians and others were only too willing to take advantage of that.

Michael Flynn was working as an agent for Turkey from August until election day, receiving $600,000 for his work. Part of that work included writing an op-ed piece that appeared on election day recommending the US extradite Fethullah Gulen, Turkish President Erdogan's arch enemy, back to Turkey. In addition, Flynn also "brainstormed" in a meeting with Turkish official, former CIA director James Woolsey, and others about the possibility of essentially kidnapping Gulen and "whisking" him back to Turkey.

Paul Manafort, who never saw some dirty oligarch's money that he wouldn't prostitute himself for or launder, had to be getting paid by someone, probably Russia or Russian interests, during the campaign, especially as he was the guy who drove the change in the GOP platform position on Ukraine.

Corey Lewandowski turned his failed position as campaign manager into a punditry gig at CNN.

Bannon and Conway were essentially paid by the Mercer family to take the job with Trump and they clearly knew where their bread was buttered.

Most of the others were either hangers on who hoped for a better job after the election or simply true believers.

Trump himself apparently merely intended to use the primaries as a platform promoting his brand, simply shooting to come in second. Winning the primary gave him an even bigger platform and enhanced his ability to get "investments" from Russia and China after the election. He was determined to spend as little as possible of his own money on the campaign and used his own businesses to pay for as much as he could.

This is why a thorough investigation of the Trump campaign will show that members of the campaign were getting paid by multiple sources, not just Russian connections. Because that was really the whole point of the campaign.