Does Trump Want To Be A Russian Oligarch?

This article was written during the presidential election campaign by a Washington Post columnist who is very familiar with Eastern Europe and Russian Oligarchy.  Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort was a highly paid consultant to the Ukraine president who was ousted from power and is now living in Russia.  His job was to use his connections in the US to help him maintain power in Ukraine. Many believe that he also helped Russian oligarchs launder their billions by a variety of means.  One method was to invest in real estate, including properties owned by the Trump Organization.  Trump was very familiar with the manner by which the oligarchs earned their fortunes; their business ventures were closely aligned with the Russian government.  Seeking the US presidency fed Trump's insatiable desire for approval, but it did not escape his attention that it might bolster the Trump brand and open up international opportunities for the Trump Organization.  Trump is clearly more interested in developing his power base than he is in the details of his policy proposals.  Anne Applebaum concludes this article by suggesting that Trump may want to use the power of government to enrich himself much like the Russian oligarchs that he seems to admire.

Applebaum wrote this article before Trump won the presidency.  Its now clear that his campaign was supported by Russian interventions into the campaign.  The FBI is now investigating possible cooperation between Trump surrogates and Russian officials who were active during the election cycle.  Paul Manafort and several other Trump associates had business relationships, and personal connections with Russian authorities.  We don't know if they colluded with Russians during the campaign but we have to ask ourselves why Trump was so closely connected to them.  He chose Paul Manafort, who had no experience in running a political campaign to be his campaign manager.  Manafort served in that capacity for six months.  Trump's surrogates are attempting to distance the campaign from Manafort now that he is under investigation.  However, we still don't know why Trump selected him as his campaign manager, and why Trump was connected with others who had business relationships with Russian officials.  The chair of the House Intelligence Committee, that is supposed to be investigating these connections, seems to be more interested in protecting Trump than he is in doing his job.  Its not clear that Republicans in Congress will do its job.  Senior Republicans like John McCain have called for a select committee to do the investigation.  That probably won't happen unless the public puts more pressure on Congress.