Last week, Mother Jones posted an article—based on my new book, How Russia Won: Donald Trump, Valdimir Putin, and the Fight for America—which examined whether Putin would meddle in the midterm elections. The book is an exhaustive account of how Russia has mounted influence and disinformation operations to mess with American elections since 2016, often to help Trump—and how Trump and the GOP have aided Moscow by denying this covert attack was happening. So it seemed a good bet the Kremlin’s clandestine operators would strike again.
And they have. Days ago, MSNOW reported that the Russian disinformation network dubbed Matryoshka—which I wrote about in the book—was posting on social media fake videos of Hollywood celebrities disparaging Democrats and encouraging votes for Republicans. This is likely a prelude to more extensive skullduggery to come.
In other Trump-Russia news, ProPublica revealed that an oligarch close to Putin paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to finance Donald Trump Jr.’s lavish wedding celebration in the Bahamas in May.
What all this demonstrates is that Moscow is still scheming to subvert American democracy and to strengthen its connection with Trump and his clan. That’s the story I tell in How Russia Won: Putin’s twilight war on America and Trump’s complicity. In the face of Trump’s yearslong effort to dismiss the Trump-Russia scandal as a Deep State “hoax,” much of the media and political world has moved on. That was a big mistake. How Russia Won shows Putin has been at it for years—and is still at it. And Trump and his GOP have unilaterally surrendered, practically encouraging Russia’s subterranean intervention. (For an excerpt of the book chronicling how MAGA went gaga for Putin, see the latest issue of my Our Land newsletter.)
Heather Cox Richardson says How Russia Won is the “definitive account of Putin's gray-zone warfare against the United States and how Trump and his loyalists have abetted that warfare for a decade. 'Russia, Russia, Russia' was never a hoax—it has always been the central story of the Trump era. David Corn's highly readable narrative is a vital step toward a long-overdue national reckoning.”
Thanks, Heather. I hope the full truth of the Trump-Russia tale can now prevail.
The book is being published today. You can learn more about it at HowRussiaWon.com. Or watch this video narrated by the inestimable Nick Offerman.
—David Corn
P.S. I'll be doing a Reddit AMA on Friday at 11:45 am ET on How Russia Won and current politics. You can join the conversation on the subreddit r/IAmA. Tune in!
