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I Know the Secret of Why Trump Truly Fears Putin | The Daily Beast Podcast

The Daily Beast | September 24, 2026



Luke Harding, author of the new book Betrayal: Trump, Putin and The New Age of Conquest, speaks with Joanna Coles about the decades-long relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, and the Russian intelligence operation that Harding argues helped cultivate Trump as a potential target for influence. Harding traces Trump’s early connections to Moscow, the murky financial dealings that followed, and the compromising information that may give Putin leverage over the president, including what could have been captured during Trump’s visits to Russia. He also explains why Russia viewed Trump’s 2016 victory as a historic intelligence triumph, how Trump’s approach to Ukraine has benefited Putin, and why Russia and China see an opportunity to reshape the global order. Harding reveals what he experienced firsthand while reporting in Moscow, including the surveillance and intimidation campaign that ultimately led to his expulsion, before turning to the startling possibility that Russian state television has used Melania Trump as a warning to her husband.

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00:00 – Trump And The Mystery Of Putin
04:26 – Putin’s Wealth, Power And MAGA Appeal
09:50 – How The KGB Targeted Donald Trump
14:47 – Russia’s 2016 Trump Operation
19:49 – How Trump Changed The World Order
24:33 – Putin’s Grip On Russia And The War
28:00 – Why Trump May Fear Putin
33:10 – Russia, China And The Trump Factor
37:46 – Melania Trump And Russian Influence
42:00 – What Russia Really Thinks Of Trump

#trump #podcast #news

📖 Title: I Know the Secret of Why Trump Truly Fears Putin
👂 Podcast: The Daily Beast Podcast
📺 Episode: 773
🎧 Format: Full Podcast
📅 Date: September 23, 2026
👨‍💼 Guest: Luke Harding
🎙️ Host: Joanna Coles

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Written by The Daily Beast

Comments

This post currently has 32 comments.

  1. @kidkid985

    September 24, 2026 at 5:31 am

    I don’t think trump envy’s Putin at all, I think he actually admires Putin and idolized , and wants to be like Putin. Like the way a kid admires the favorite ball player.

  2. @NanaUBzns

    September 24, 2026 at 5:31 am

    Joanna and Michael were quite roughed up last night in the comments. Though I don’t agree about Romney, and honestly am shocked and disappointed that Michael said he doesn’t vote; I do still appreciate them. I would love for Michael to explain not voting though, that honestly hurts with the situation we are in ☹️

  3. @grahambell8760

    September 24, 2026 at 5:31 am

    Sleepy Donny does kill people. He has killed a lot of them. He is killing them off the coast of Ecuador, in Venezuela, in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Persian Gulf, tens of thousands in Iran, in Gaza, in Lebanon, he has shipped immigrants off to places they were no where near from to prisons to die. He has killed them in detention camps in the United States. He has killed many US service men and women and lied about it. He is a narcissistic psychopath who, at the UN, just yesterday basically threatened to kill us all in nuclear war.

  4. @Myrtvedt6

    September 24, 2026 at 5:31 am

    Well if there’s one thing Trump will get down on his bended knees for, its riches. Being without values his very being is plugged up with respect for the almighty mullah! It’s what his soul respects, maybe the only thing

  5. @Victorthespy008

    September 24, 2026 at 5:31 am

    tRump belongs in Guantanamo being interrogated, not in the White House building ballrooms and arches. He needs to be removed B4 he has his bunker to hunker down in when he refuses to leave in 2029!

  6. @ElisabethEklind

    September 24, 2026 at 5:31 am

    Thank you for the interesting interview with Harding. One fact that has not been talked about enough is how the Russians suggested to Burnett that Trump should be the "star" of the Apprentice, that he would make the show a success. Burnett hesitated at first, but was later convinced. Putin understood that this could be the way for their asset to become famous in the US, which was then used as a platform for Trump's election as president. Trump is Putin's useful idiot and it's evident to most Europeans with any IQ that Kremlin runs the US through their puppet Trump!

  7. @langermain

    September 24, 2026 at 5:31 am

    An excellent and so-necessary episode. One gets so used to how Trump acts with Putin, and how Trump doesn't back Ukraine at all, that whereas a couple of years ago I was so certain that Trump was compromised that I felt it had to be an absolute fact, over time one gets used to things and forgets it. And it's all very well to discuss with Michael Wolff, bless him, how Trump will behave anyway — but it's a whole other dimension that Trump might not have ever been President without the FSB, and that he might not have been so pro-Putin. And where are the American media and population in exclaiming this truth aloud?! You never hear Americans talk about Trump as a Russian asset. Even the CIA and FBI are now broken organisations in part.

  8. @irishhi8333

    September 24, 2026 at 5:31 am

    I understand samizdat as underground copying and sharing of books and pamphlets within a nation and tamizdat as publishing outside a country and smuggling the literature into the nation.

  9. @lisathompson1027

    September 24, 2026 at 5:31 am

    So based on all of this info, and prior info, American's are doing WHAT??? I am so very tired of the America speak!!! Can America ACT beyond their speak??? I am so very tired of the endless SPEAK and Analysis of all!! Would it be too much trouble to ask that America do something beyond talk and profiling? American's know what they need to do but it requires courage and possibly sacrifice?!! May I remind you all and then let you never forget, that apparently you are "THE LAND OF THE FREE AND HOME OF THE BRAVE". Let the rest of the World see all you American's stand NOW, behind those words!! PLEASE!

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