{"id":50532,"date":"2022-04-02T13:03:05","date_gmt":"2022-04-02T17:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?p=50532"},"modified":"2022-04-05T09:42:43","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T13:42:43","slug":"craig-unger-on-trump-putin-and-the-gop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2022\/04\/craig-unger-on-trump-putin-and-the-gop.html","title":{"rendered":"<strong><em>Craig Unger:<\/em> On Trump, Putin, and the GOP<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"> This interview looks at a huge can of worms poisoning American democracy.  <\/h4>\n\n\n<p> Scroll down to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>Via The New Republic:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/CRAIG-UNGER.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"193\" height=\"187\" data-attachment-id=\"50537\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/craig-unger\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/CRAIG-UNGER.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"193,187\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"CRAIG UNGER\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/CRAIG-UNGER.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/CRAIG-UNGER.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/CRAIG-UNGER.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-50537\"\/><\/a><figcaption><em>Craig Unger<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Investigative journalist and author Craig Unger has spent decades researching the profound connection between figures on the American right and autocrats and authoritarians around the world. His most recent book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B08WX33F54\/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1\"><em>American Kompromat: How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power, and Treachery<\/em><\/a> explores the relationships between Donald Trump and other conservative U.S. figures and Russia. Unger speaks about Vladimir Putin\u2019s likely state of mind these days and whether it should worry us. [It should.] <\/p><p>&#8220;He talks about the relationship between Putin and the oligarchs\u2014a relationship, he says, in which the Russian president holds most, but not all of the cards. When conversation turns toward Trump and the Republican party, Unger peels back layers of history: He notes that Trump was identified as a potential KGB asset in the Cold War days, details a lavish junket held for powerful former GOP Congressman Tom DeLay, and talks about [&#8220;over 250 million dollars without even breaking a sweat&#8221;] that poured into super-PACs aligned with Russian interests. He also discusses ways that the GOP has done Russia\u2019s bidding at crucial times, as when it changed the Ukraine plank in its 2016 platform. Finally, [he is asked] what Trump could do with respect to Russia and NATO if he winds up back in the Oval Office.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"TNR Tomaskycast: Author Craig Unger on Trump, Putin, and the GOP\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5VdNRJJeDaY?start=761&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This interview looks at a huge can of worms poisoning American democracy.<\/p>\n<p>He notes that Trump was identified as a potential KGB asset in the Cold War days, details a lavish junket held for powerful former GOP Congressman Tom DeLay, and talks about more than 250 million dollars that poured &#8220;without even breaking a sweat&#8221; into super-PACs aligned with Russian interests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":50537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26,4,20,23,17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-50532","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"category-main","9":"category-media","10":"category-news","11":"category-political-culture","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/CRAIG-UNGER.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-d92","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50532"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50616,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50532\/revisions\/50616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}