Trump’s Secret is Hidden in Plain Sight
To the Editor: Why do people find Trump’s behavior puzzling? The reasons for it are remarkably clear. The “stooge” strategy has been a mainstay of mafias since before the Borgias: find a prominent but indebted businessman, bail him out, own him and have him bring your agenda into the mainstream. The Russian mafia bailed Trump out of massive debts accumulated from his many failed businesses from the mid-90s through 2008, making him a mafia stooge. A mafia stooge does what his mafia boss tells him to—or else. (The “or else” is another old mafia tradition.) Since before Peter the Great, Russia’s leadership has been obsessed …