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Craig Unger@craigunger · Jun 11, 2026

1/ Last month I told a room of Baltic intelligence officers and diplomats that Donald Trump is an asset of Russian…

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Summary

A journalist argues that major U.S. news outlets avoid reporting on Donald Trump's alleged ties to Russian intelligence without a legal prosecution, while Baltic intelligence officials treat it as common knowledge. The piece examines why Americans maintain disbelief about threats that European nations recognize immediately.

Summarized by ThreadOut AI from the full thread. May miss nuance — read the thread below.

  1. #1

    1/ Last month I told a room of Baltic intelligence officers and diplomats that Donald Trump is an asset of Russian intelligence. Not one of them blinked. "Of course," they said. Ho hum. But in America, saying it out loud is still taboo. Why? 🧵

  2. #2

    2/ It isn't a fringe claim. Acting CIA director Michael Morell called Trump "an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation." Hayden called him Russia's "useful fool." Brennan called Helsinki "nothing short of treasonous." The Senate Intel Committee — led by Marco Rubio — documented the threat. @JohnBrennan @GenMhayden @CBSNews

  3. #3

    3/So why won't major news outlets pursue it? My argument: the American press can carry a grave story about a president only while it's tied to a legal docket — an indictment, a trial. Take the prosecution away and the story isn't re-argued on the merits. It just goes quiet.

  4. #4

    4/Finland and Estonia have lived next door to Russia for generations. They know the playbook on sight. Americans have had the luxury of disbelief — and it's running out. My new piece: The Anatomy of a Taboo . craigunger.substack.com/p/the-anatomy-…

  5. #5

    Didn't expect this to hit such a nerve. The full essay — why the U.S. press won't say what European intelligence services treat as obvious — is here: craigunger.substack.com/p/the-anatomy-…."