The Mystery of President Trump's Relationship With Putin
President Donald Trump’s meeting on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin shattered the established pattern in Russian-American relations. During the press conference that followed, Trump endorsed Putin’s statement that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 U.S. election, contradicting the assessment of his own intelligence agencies.
Trump has since walked back his remarks, but the summit is raising new questions about the nature of his relationship with Putin, and his business ties to Russia. As far back as 1987, Trump was entertaining the idea of building a Trump Tower in the country, when it was still the Soviet Union. His numerous attempts failed, including an effort in 2014 with Aras Agalarov, a Russian oligarch with close ties to Putin. Agalarov collaborated with Trump in 2013 to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Russia.
Though he failed to build a skyscraper in Moscow, Trump relied on Russian money for his businesses. He sold countless apartments to wealthy Russians in places like Manhattan, and his Atlantic City casinos were popular were with Russian-Americans.
“All that activity brought him into contact with a huge number of people from the former Soviet Union,” said Ilya Marritz, co-host of the Trump Inc podcast from WNYC and ProPublica.
Trump himself often toyed with the idea of meeting with Putin, including in a tweet about the 2013 Miss Universe pageant that the future president was hosting in Moscow. Although the Trump Organization now denies having any major business deals with Russia, rumors persist that Putin has some sort of financial leverage over, or compromising information on the president.
“There’s a theory that Trump owes the Russians because of their financial support,” Trump Inc. co-host Andrea Bernstein told WNYC's Jami Floyd. “On the other hand, some people who have worked for him have told us the idea that Trump would feel a sense of obligation to anyone is preposterous.”
Listen above to hear the full interview with Marritz and Bernstein.
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