Say до свидания (goodbye) to your trust in Donald J. Trump’s administration and his campaign team. We, as a country, recently passed the one-year anniversary of the shocking Trump victory in the 2016 presidential election. Throughout the acrimonious campaign between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, several rumors spread about alleged Russian support for Trump. Investigations into these ties continued throughout the entirety of Trump’s first year in office, and there seems to be no end in sight.

There are many who feel that the Russian involvement in the 2016 election was sought by both political parties, or in other words, that both the Democrat and the Republican parties unjustly corresponded with Russia. Toni Lanausse ‘20 says that “Trump’s ties to Russia are unfair to the Democratic party who had a perfectly valid and fair campaign.” Now, this being said, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate, had a campaign that was seemingly based upon lies and secrets, as we saw after certain leaked emails were made public. Neither side of the campaign seemed to have campaigned fairly, but the Trump’s troubles have escalated even further.

Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort, President Trump’s campaign manager, met with a Russian attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, who claimed to have damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Although the meeting originally took place to try and obtain secret information, Veselnitskaya attempted to sway the conversation towards U.S. sanctions against the Russian government, otherwise known as the Magnitsky Act. Whether or not this meeting was intended to influence the election is unknown, but having the meeting greatly raised suspicion.  Did events such as these affect the campaign? Personally, I believe that it must have been very difficult for Donald Trump to be unaware of all of these “secret” meetings. If they influenced the election, it’s not right to have a President with an administration climbing their way to the top with Russia by their side in power of the whole country.

The suspicion doesn’t end there. Interrogations and convictions are becoming more and more frequent. Donald Trump Jr. recently confessed to communicating with Wikileaks, a pro-transparency organization with deep ties to Russian intelligence services. Founded by Julian Assange, this non-profit source for secret and leaked news had caused a massive uproar during the election. The revelation of Donald Jr.’s communications with Wikileaks adds to it.

George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy advisor for Donald Trump’s campaign, met with a Russian professor connected to the Kremlin who also claimed to have damaging secrets about Mrs. Clinton.  After having made false statements to the FBI about relations with Russian officials, he will be pleading guilty of lying to the FBI.  Similarly, Carter Page, a former foreign policy advisor to Trump, made trips to Russia during the campaign. He sent emails to Papadopoulos concerning the campaign and following his July 2016 trip, and he was let go from the campaign team.

In addition to the possible impropriety of Russian influence, Paul Manafort and his associate, Richard Gates, were indicted by the FBI after being charged with money laundering and conspiracy against the United States. Cases erupt daily and distrust in the government grows as claims are made against Trump’s administration.  If President Trump knew about the meetings, it goes against American principles and is unacceptable.

The suspicious links between Trump and Russia has proved very controversial throughout the country. Andrew Falduto ‘19 shares his thoughts, saying “they are unusual, but don’t seem to have any criminality attached to them. It seems that it was simply support and possibly funding coming from them. Other than that, I think President Trump just wants to improve relations in order to deal with Syria and North Korea with some support.” Although this may be true for some, it’s clear that Trump’s team has been fraternizing with an outside force to attempt to sway the minds of the people voting in America.

The American people hold an expectation that their government, and those holding public office, act in accordance with ethical standards and the duty to provide for the general welfare. Thus, it can be very disheartening when elected officials are accused of acting in a self-serving or unethical manner.  The Russian interference with the 2016 electoral process could end in Trump’s removal as president since these connections are illegal and against the basic morals of the United States.