Donald Trump’s campaign for President of the United States recently fired its campaign manager, Paul Manafort. This marks the second time the same man was fired from the position in less than three months. His most recent stint with the campaign lasted a surprisingly short seven weeks. While he was at the helm of the campaign, he influenced the Trump party to become pro-Russian while also denouncing NATO. He was also unable to control the damage that occurred as a result of Trump’s feud with the Muslim family of Captain Humayun Khan, a war hero who sacrificed his life for his country.
In what can not be called a coincidence, Manafort was fired from the Trump campaign only a few hours before a story broke on Politico, which detailed some of the more nefarious activity of the ex-campaign manager. According to Politico, Manafort was responsible for the transfer of $2.2 million from pro-Russian interests in Ukraine to lobbying firms located in Washington, DC. The transfer occurred in 2012, and it was done in a way that would conceal the true source of money. Such a large contribution was clearly meant to influence the United States political spectrum in some way.
The kicker is that it is illegal for lobbying firms to accept contributions from foreign entities without declaring their affiliation with those foreign entities. Firms that accept such funds are legally bound to report them to the Justice Department, and violating that law could result in a felony charge of up to $250,000 and five years in prison.
Perhaps the most notorious reputation for Manafort was earned while he worked for Viktor Yanukovych, a Ukrainian man who served as a puppet for Putin within the Ukraine. Yanukovych was ‘elected’ as the leader of the Ukraine and quickly started pillaging the entire country of its value. He was allowed to stay in power for only a brief time, and in 2014 he was driven out of the Ukraine. He entered Russia, where Putin accepted him with open arms. He now resides in the city of Rostov. Manafort, many people believe, was directly responsible for Yanukovych gaining power in the Ukraine in the first place.
The Ukrainian people still have a hard time understanding why Paul Manafort, a low-level American strategist, would agree to help someone so closely tied to Vladimir Putin. Some political corespondents examining the issue have made the joke that Donald Trump could wind up living next door to Yanukovych in Rostov if Manafort were to continue running Trump’s campaign in the same style.
It was quite understandable when the American people questioned Trump for hiring Manafort in the first place. Shockingly, Trump has been shown to be a mere mouthpiece for whomever he agrees to let advise him. Within days of Manafort taking over the Trump campaign, the country was treated to anti-NATO language from the presidential candidate. At the same time, a group of Russians hired to spread propaganda started filling social media pages with positive messages about Trump. The Russian media, which is controlled entirely by the state, started loudly praising Trump for his ‘convictions’. There is even strong evidence that the hacks on the Democratic National Committee and the private email server of Hillary Clinton were orchestrated by Russian hackers. Each of those occurrences could be directly attributed to Manafort.
Steve Bannon will replace Manafort as the manager for the Trump campaign. Bannon is also the current CEO of Breitbart News, one of the most infamously biased news agencies on the planet. Such a huge shift in political course might dramatically change the outcome of the presidential election.