I can hear TINA TURNER in my head as I write this. “What’s love got to do with it?” indeed. In the case of DONALD TRUMP and anyone he’s ever slept with, love’s got NOTHING to do with it. Take this to the bank: Trump never married for love either. He’s incapable of loving anyone other than himself. Trump married for arm candy and breeding stock. Take this to the bank, too: MELANIA TRUMP knew the gig when she signed on to it. For her, it wasn’t about love either. And it isn’t about the one thing they “share” – a kid with their linked DNA, Barron. No, Melania coulda left Trump eons ago. I bet she wanted to – and still does. I bet she thinks about it every day. Only one thing keeps Melania married and in place, doing what she’s been assigned to do: Vladimir Putin.

A couple months back, I wrote a blog that came at this same subject but from a slightly different angle. I asked “Why is BORIS EPSHTEYN still Trump’s lawyer (it’s the same reason Melania is still his wife?”

I wrote this about Boris –

“Epshteyn may do lawyerly things around Trump while Melania does wife-y things but both are actually performing a whole other job: handler.

Boris is one of Trump’s handlers; so is Melania. The question: on whose behalf are they handling Trump? The answer: Vladimir Putin.

And this –

Boris Epshteyn and Melania Trump have worked – and still work – as Trump’s handlers, managing Trump and his behavior for the one person Donald Trump dares not muck with: Putin.”

Why has Boris remained on the payroll,often assigned “oversight of the legal work” and gatekeeping access to Trump. Why is that? Is Boris actually an unheralded legal genius?

Is he the one, true “Trump Whisperer”?

Boris is Russian by birth. Born in 1982, he and his Russian-Jewish parents emigrated from Russia to New Jersey in 1993. Eventually, Epshteyn attended Georgetown University (he got his bachelors in Foreign Service degree there) and got his law degree from Georgetown U’s Law Center in 2007. With JD in hand, Boris worked on securities transactions, private placements, and bank finance. In 2008, Epshteyn entered the political realm; he became a communications aide with the McCain-Palin campaign.

And then either Epshteyn found his meal ticket or his meal ticket found him. In 2016, Epshteyn joined the  Trump campaign as a senior advisor. He made frequent television appearances as a Trump media surrogate on Trump’s behalf.

Being in the right place at the right time made up for the huge lack of skill.

In between working for Trump, Epshteyn got involved in a few other odd bits of business. He was managing director of business and legal affairs at the boutique investment bank West America Securities Corporation. While he was there, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority expelled the bank.

In October 2013, Epshteyn moderated a panel at the investment conference “Invest in Moscow!”. The panel was composed mainly of Moscow city government officials, including Sergey Cheremin, a city minister who heads Moscow’s foreign economic and international relations department.

In September 2016, the media watchdog organization Media Matters for America criticized CNN, Fox News, and PBS for failing to disclose Epshteyn’s “financial ties to the former Soviet Union, which include consulting through Strategy International LLC for ‘entities doing business in Eastern Europe’ and moderating a Russian-sponsored conference on ‘investment opportunities in Moscow.’”

Hmmmmm… Boris had ties to the old country that he failed to disclose… Hmmmmmm…

I’m just going to lay down this marker here: before Putin took over running Russia, he ran what remained of the KGB. He was practically born a spy. Because he ran the KGB, Putin was able to blackmail Boris Yeltsin into quitting on New Year’s Eve 1999 and turning the Russian government over to Putin.

Putin can run spies in his sleep. He sure knows how to spot them and train them. Take Maria Butina. Yeah, sure, we caught her in the end, but before we did, she penetrated the upper levels of Republican leadership via the NRA. As we’re going to learn, Russia has penetrated virtually the entire GOP. It’s got them rooting against a democratic Ukraine!

But then, the GOP’s leadership nominated Trump despite knowing that 1) Putin had compromised him and 2) because of that, Trump posed a grave national security threat should he become POTUS. The GOP nominated him anyway. Then they stood by when Trump brayed “Russia, if you’re listening…!” knowing damned well that Russia was listening. Trump was their bought-and-paid-for intelligence asset. And the entire Republican Party was now his co-conspirator to commit treason.

Want to understand the strange hold Trump has over the Republican Party? That’s it! They are all his co-conspirators to commit treason. Not an iota of hyperbole in it.

Consider how hard the GOP worked until recently to deny and obscure Trump’s (and their own) relationship with Russia and Putin. Back “then”, they were covering their own asses. They always knew “Putin [paid] Trump – swear to God!“

Now, the GOP is open about their embrace of this hostile foreign dictator who has quite openly expressed his hostility toward America.

Why on earth would any Republican be “Pro-Putin”? More to the point, why aren’t all these pro-Putin Republicans under investigation? When did we start accepting treason as some sort of “norm”?

Everywhere you look – once you pull back the curtain on Republican World and Trumpworld – there’s Russia! Who ran Trump’s campaign in 2016? Paul Manafort. Who did Manafort work for (and to whom did Manafort owe around $18 million? Oleg Deripaska – oligarch and member of Russian military intelligence.

Manafort used his job as Trump’s campaign manager to square his debt with Deripaska. Whatever Manafort did must have been worth at least $18 million or Deripaska would have shoved Manafort out a window by now. Manafort went to prison for handing Deripaska proprietary polling data on four states: Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

If you remember, Trump “won” by taking Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – three states Hillary Clinton and the world assumed she’d win. Remember all that polling data? Russian intelligence fed it back to Black Democratic voters in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Ads popped up on their Facebook pages warning them that Hillary Clinton was a racist on the down low.

The goal: discourage Black Democratic voters from voting (by feeding them Russia-provided bullshit). But, Russia couldn’t have done what it did if the Trump campaign (via Paul Manafort) had not done what HE did.

But for Russia, Trump would NEVER have become POTUS.

Quick digression for bonus points. Remember who brought Mike Pence to the veepstakes?

PAUL MANAFORT! Yeah – Paul Manafort insisted on Pence. The last thing on earth Manafort would have wanted in a veep was a boy scout who’d rat out his criminal enterprise. Manafort chose Pence because he isn’t a boy scout.

Like everyone else in Republican world, Mike Pence has secrets that others can turn into kompromat. And kompromat is Russia’s game.

Okay, so Russia gets its asset elected president by using America’s political system (and one of its two political parties) against itself. Pretty clever. Economical, too. Putin found a way to conquer Russia’s main enemy without having to fire a shot – and risk a “real” war. We have been on the losing end of a cyber war for almost a decade now.

Cyber war IS war.

Anyone who thinks you have to have bombs and bullets in order to call it a “war” is doomed to lose every war they ever fight going forwards.

None of this proves that Boris Epshteyn himself is a Russian intelligence asset. The intelligence world is rarely that straightforward. It’s all shadows and there are a million plus shades of grey.

Considering the time and effort that Putin put into his Trump project – and considering the amazing results he’s gotten (how many of our secrets did Trump give Putin?) – it wouldn’t exactly surprise anyone if Putin wanted to keep the good espionage times rolling for as long as possible. In other words, getting Trump into the White House wasn’t the desired end result. It was the means to the end result.

Getting Trump into the White House posed one set of challenges. Keeping him there (for as long as possible) posed another. A professional spy like Putin would want to moderate an unpredictable asset like Trump. Surround him (as much as possible) with calming or controlling influences. And (as much as possible) mitigate his unpredictability.

Also important: the calming, controlling influences need to look like they belong in Trump’s world. Having one as Trump’s lawyer would work! So would having one as Trump’s wife.

Is there anything public-facing that connects Melania to Putin? No, there isn’t. Melania’s father – Viktor Knavs – was a member of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, then Yugoslavia’s national communist party. That proves nothing. As modeling careers go, Melania’s was unremarkable. She was another attractive woman who entered Trump’s orbit of her own volition.

But, she stayed there. Despite the constant humiliations. Does Melania have self confidence issues? Did she see Trump as her only possible meal ticket? Even today, their relationship defies logical explanation. Here’s Trump trying to explain it in The Intelligencer:

“She’s a very calm person. It’s very interesting. And I think that’s what people like about her. Our dinners are nice. Dinners are like other people’s dinners. We get along. We actually get along very well.”

“We get along very well”. Trump is an inarticulate boob. Yet, he always articulates plenty – behind his words. The word that neither seems to use toward the other (with any authenticity): “love”. As in, “despite everything, we still love each other”. Can you imagine Trump even thinking such a thing – about any woman (other than his daughter)?

Exactly.

There were reports – after Trump’s victory – of Melania Trump losing her shit and screaming at Trump within earshot of many others. Tump had assured her he would lose, Melania raged. How the hell did Trump win?

Had Trump lost, Melania would have divorced Trump (if not over the Stormy Daniels affair then over any of a raft of other things).

Does anyone believe that Melania Trump loves her husband in any way, shape or form?

While we’re at it, does anyone believe that Melania Trump loves America or loves the traditions of the presidency?

How does one explain Melania Trump accompanying Donald to the White House and becoming his “First Lady”? How to explain her continuing presence as his legal wife when all indications are she detests him deeply.

Curious detail? David Pecker – on the stand in Trump’s NY election fraud trial – made it explicit: Trump paid off the people he paid off to protect his campaign, not to protect his wife and son. He didn’t give a rat’s ass about either. And, in fact, he said out loud it was all about winning the campaign.

That probably explains the other curious detail: Melania is a big No Show at the trial, demonstrating her faith in and support of her husband. In fact, none of Trump’s children have been at the courtroom to show dad their support in his time of trouble.

It boggles my mind to this day that such obvious criminal behavior remains untouched. When history gets done with us and our time, I don’t think history will be kind to Merrick Garland. His dithering demands explanation. I cannot imagine his answer will be the least bit good.

Why is Melania Trump still married to Donald – and still making the occasional appearance with him? Go ask Vlad. He knows literally everything.