Russia, Russia, Russia! It became something of a battle cry for MAGA since 2016, when the Trump campaign was found to be communicating with Russians. Donny used his political power and a few obsequious toadies to cover that one up and he got away with it. Then he started ridiculing those who had considered he had an improper association with the Russians. But you know who keeps turning up in Donny’s life, saving his ass (or trying to), over and over again? Russians, Russians, Russians!

They were there for him in 2016. We know they were trying to smear Joe Biden with misinformation about bribes, which the GOP glomed onto and ran with – until their “informant” was arrested for lying to the FBI. They were STILL there for him in 2022, when his media company was just about to tank. Donny tried to merge his company with another in 2021 but regulators opened a securities investigation into the company and while they were working that out, Trump media took emergency loans to keep afloat, including from an entity called ES Family Trust. ES Family Trust opened an account with Paxum Bank, a small bank registered in Dominica, in the Caribbean. Mostly, Paxum Bank’s claim to fame is that they provide financial services to the porn industry.

So, what is ES Family Trust? It’s a trust operated like a shell company by a guy named Anton Postolnikov. You’ll never guess his national identity. Okay, trick question. He’s a hybrid, Russian-American. His trust is set up in St. Petersburg, Russia although it lists it’s address as a residential home in Hollywood, Florida – a home which was sold in December, 2023. He’s a co-owner of Paxum Bank and he’s currently the subject of a criminal investigation by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security into the Trump Media merger. Oh, and did I mention he has close ties to Vladimir Putin? C’mon, at least pretend to be shocked. Yeah, me neither…

So, if Postolnikov owns a bank, why set up a shell company to finance Donny? Because Paxum Bank isn’t licensed to make loans in the US and Donny needed the money fast. $8 million dollars worth, according to the Guardian. The loans were provided in the form of convertible promissory notes, meaning repayment would come in the form of Trump Media stock. The estimate is that ES Family Trust’s stake is somewhere between $20 million and $40 million dollars, which makes perfect sense in a company with no value, no income, and no assets.

From there? It gets murky. Downright shady, some might say. Classic Donny, I’d say. Murky deals with hard to follow financial flows, unclear ownership, and ties to people subject to various misdeeds and criminal investigations? Yep, that sounds like Donny all over…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of Donny’s failing media company, people are talking about him taking the cash from his overvalued stock before it crashes entirely. He’s not supposed to be able to take any for six months but that’s an impediment that the board can remove – and Eric and Don, Jr are on the board. But here’s the thing; who’s going to buy it?

Consider; this stock is worthless. I mean, it has value right now because MAGA (and possibly foreign actors) pumped the value up early on. They started buying shares at a furious rate, turning the stock into what’s called a ‘meme stock.’ Think Gamestop. It became a trendy thing to buy, even though the company behind it had horrible financials. It’s one thing for people to claim faith in their dear leader when nothing is on the line. It’s another thing entirely when there’s actual money people are actually losing.

And if you got in late, oh, boy are you losing money. It got up to nearly $70 dollars a share. Then the frenzy cooled and people started looking at what they were buying – and they didn’t like what they saw. What’s to like? A company that lost $56 million dollars in a year on revenues of $4 million? So, today, as of this writing, the stock is down to $37.20/share, just over half of that amount. It won’t be too much longer until it reaches it’s proper value. Then it will likely be de-listed. So if you got in at $35/share because you love Donny, and you hold, no matter what, because you love Donny? You’re going to lose your money.

If I told you I had a company with extremely low revenues, deep debt, an unpopular, failing product, few advertisers, and steadily dropping usage, how much are you going to in invest? Right. And that’s exactly how much people should be investing in Trump Media. So who does Donny sell to in order to realize that cash windfall? MAGA can’t buy that much stock. Nobody who knows what their doing will buy any of that stock. That leaves people who don’t give a rat’s tail about the stock – they intend to buy the GOP presidential candidate for their own purposes.

When I was in the Air Force, it was illegal for people to be gay. Now, I’m not gay so it didn’t affect me. But I always thought the position was stupid for one, glaring reason: the only reason being gay was illegal was because it might set someone up for blackmail, creating a security risk. But the only reason anybody could blackmail a gay person in the military is because the military made it illegal to be gay. That’s called circular reasoning.

But I’ll tell you this: Donny being financially beholden to international criminals and strongmen and other unsavory characters really WILL set him up to be blackmailed and controlled. That’s NOT circular reasoning. Donny’s financial desperation (unexpected from a self-described “genius businessman billionaire”) has put him in a vulnerable position where he can be exploited by any number of bad actors. Is MAGA really going to try and put THAT into the White House? Sadly, yes. Hey, America, how about we don’t let them?