Anti-Trump activists and their media allies are once again peddling the exhausted and debunked conspiracy theory that Donald Trump is a Russian asset—this time courtesy of some ex-KGB agents who have suddenly found their voices. The latest installment in this saga comes from Alnur Mussayev, the former head of Kazakhstan’s intelligence service, who claimed in a Facebook post that Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987 during his first visit to Moscow as a 40-year-old real estate developer. Like every good conspiracy theorist, Mussayev conveniently provides no evidence—only the assurance that any proof is locked away in Vladimir Putin’s private files. Not to be outdone, two other former KGB operatives, Yuri Shvets and Sergei Zhyrnov, have enthusiastically jumped on the bandwagon, claiming that Trump was undoubtedly groomed by Soviet intelligence. According to Zhyrnov, Trump’s every move in Moscow would have been recorded, from his cab rides to his hotel stay, and he was likely caught in a classic intelligence trap. Of course, no documentation or hard proof has been provided—just the word of three former spies who now conveniently happen to be making these claims decades later. But, in the eyes of anti-Trump activists, the lack of evidence only makes it more believable. The supposed “analysis” of this wild claim, penned by Rutgers professor Alexander J. Motyl, bends over backward to justify why we should take this fantastical theory seriously. According to Motyl, the fact that three former KGB agents agree on the story is itself proof that we shouldn’t dismiss it. That logic is about as airtight as a leaky Soviet submarine—but no matter! He also suggests that Occam’s Razor (the principle that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one) somehow favors the idea that Trump is a Kremlin-controlled Manchurian candidate, rather than the more reasonable assessment: that Trump is simply a businessman and political outsider who doesn’t align with the establishment’s foreign policy groupthink. This latest reheated nonsense is, of course, just another example of Trump Derangement Syndrome in action. After spending years breathlessly pushing the Russia collusion hoax, left-wing media figures, academics, and deep-state operatives are desperate for a sequel—even though the first story collapsed under the weight of its own absurdity. One has to admire the sheer chutzpah of these people. First, they spent years mocking Trump supporters as conspiracy theorists. Now, they are willing to base an entire smear campaign on Facebook posts from a Kazakh ex-spymaster and vague recollections from former KGB agents living in France and Washington, D.C. Perhaps the most laughable part of this pathetic attempt at a scandal is the idea that Trump’s policies—his skepticism of NATO, his insistence that Europe pay its fair share for defense, and his belief that America’s interests should come before endless foreign wars—are somehow proof of his “Russian allegiance.” Never mind that Trump armed Ukraine, imposed harsh sanctions on Russia, and presided over a period where Putin didn’t dare launch an invasion—something that can’t be said for the “tough-on-Russia” Biden administration that sat back while Putin marched into Ukraine. The real takeaway here isn’t just that the anti-Trump left has no new ideas—it’s that they are so desperate for a scandal that they are willing to recycle one of the most humiliating failures in modern political history. If this is the best they can […]