Center for American Progress Action

Donate

Center for American Progress Action

101 Russia contacts.

101 Russia contacts.

It's another day in Trump's America—and another day to stand up for what's right. Get the facts to fight back.

Thanks to his lawyers’ recent redaction failures, we now know that President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, allegedly “shared polling data on the 2016 election with a Russian consultant who had links to Moscow’s intelligence agencies.” It was subsequently revealed that Rick Gates also had contact with this Russian consultant.

Here’s what it means:

  • With that new information, the number of known contacts between the Trump campaign/transition and Russian-linked operatives jumps to 101.
  • New analysis from The Moscow Project identifies these 101 separate contacts, as well as the key Trump-affiliated players, many of whom have lied about their roles (Jeff Sessions, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen—any of those names ring a bell?).
  • Trump, his 2016 campaign, and his administration have issued “at least 15 blanket denials” of this fact, claiming the number was in fact 0. Needless to say, they were all lies.

As The Moscow Project’s Talia Dessel told USA Today:

“This wasn’t just one email or call…you don’t just have 100 contacts with a foreign power if there’s nothing going on there.”

Check out the full report here.

#TRUMPSHUTDOWN: DAY 20

  • Trump is at the border in Texas today, diverting federal resources for no apparent reason.
  • Texas landowners are preparing to fight against wall construction. “You could give me a trillion dollars and I wouldn’t take it,” said one landowner of the prospect of the government buying his land for the wall.
  • Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell once again refused to reopen the government, even though members of his own party want to do just that.
  • Trump once again floated the (illegal) idea of declaring a national emergency and forcing the military to build the wall.

THINKING CAP: CRISIS MANAGEMENT.

As President Trump continues to manufacture a crisis on our Southern border, an actual American crisis drags on, with a death rate more suggestive of a war zone than the United States.

This week on Thinking CAP, the team sits down with CAP immigration expert Phil Wolgin for a debrief on the so-called crisis on the US-Mexico border. Then, physician and The Atlantic staff writer James Hamblin shares his perspective on how we’ve let the opioid epidemic get so bad and what kinds of innovative treatments (like harm reduction or marijuana) he thinks should be explored to more effectively combat addiction.

Listen to the episode here.

The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. A full list of supporters is available here. American Progress would like to acknowledge the many generous supporters who make our work possible.