The rival billionaire opines over the President's ongoing Russian scandal, and somewhat comes to his defence. Somewhat.
Donald Trump and Mark Cuban have always been at odds, publicly. The rather strange public contempt for his fellow billionaire has rather unclear origins, perhaps Trump believed there was only room for one high-profile business-related reality TV show on NBC as the two competed between Shark Tank and The Apprentice.
Trump has consistently called out Mark Cuban on twitter, calling him a weak, boring loser, (in fact, Trump has tweeted about Cuban nearly 50 times) but at the moment he has some slightly more pressing concerns – like Russia and the surrounding chaos that has plunged his administration into heavy turbulence.
At the moment, Michael Flynn is seeking immunity in order to testify – a move that in the past Trump and his people, including Flynn himself, have said repeatedly is akin to admitting guilt. His son in law and senior advisor Jared Kushner is also under investigation for his potentially improper connections to Russia during the campaign that may have affected the election outcome.
While efforts have been made by House Oversight Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz and House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes to dispel any story that may implicate Trump and his team do in fact have mysterious ties to Russia, its evident that this would be the most smoke in history without fire.
Enter Mark Cuban
The never-shy billionaire released a twitterstorm over the weekend explaining his theory on Trump’s involvement – and its entirely reasonable.
1) Here is my take on Trump and Russia
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) April 1, 2017
2) Russians have made him a lot of money buying condos and investing in his bldgs and hosting his beauty pageant.That makes them his friends
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) April 1, 2017
3) He ignored their backgrounds. But that’s not unusual. Starbucks takes anyone’s money and so do most businesses including mine.
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) April 1, 2017
4) He spoke favorably about Putin to get his approval for Russians to get $ out of Russia and into Trump deals. He saw it as easy money
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) April 1, 2017
5) When Manafort was recommended, he didn’t vett him. He saw it as a win win. Win the election or open the door for more Russian business
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) April 1, 2017
6) As people with Russian connects came into the campaign he had no clue that those connections were possibly being influenced by Russia
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) April 1, 2017
7) His lean campaign took direction from people he trusted and he followed those directions. He had no clue where the Russians fit
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) April 1, 2017
8) when Manafort got “hot” he got rid of him but the campaign approach had been established. Bannon took it to the next level FTW
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) April 1, 2017
9) No chance this is a DJT led conspiracy. He isn’t detail oriented, organized or big picture enough to pull off any time of conspiracy
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) April 1, 2017
10) I think Putin recognized trumps greed and took advantage by back channeling coordinated misinformation in an attempt to influence voters
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) April 1, 2017
11) Trump had no idea this was happening. He was doing what he was told to do. Stick to the script and read what was written for him
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) April 1, 2017
12)Because he didn’t recognize or understand as it was happening he has no idea what to do now or how to respond. So he turns to Fox News
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) April 1, 2017
13) That’s what I think happened. Feel free to agree or disagree
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) April 1, 2017
Cuban, of course, is not the first observer to theoreticize that Trump the political novice depends heavily on input and advice from around him but lacks any attention to detail that would have been able to pick up on any sinister motives by his team.
But he is, in some way, coming to the defense of Trump, saying that it is not the president that has concocted this evil plan, but instead those around him have created the saga in an attempt to consolidate power.
