Interesting read by /u/vacationawayfromwork - please, check his original comment out for great source work!
Trump is being bribed by Putin.
July 8, 2016 - Trump associate Carter Page visits Moscow and receives an offer of equity from Russia in a massive Russian oil deal if Trump will lift US/EU sanctions. These sanctions have crippled the Russian economy and hamstrung their oligarchy.
July 18, 2016 - Trump's team makes one tweak to the RNC platform: a pro-Russia softening of our stance on their invasion of Ukraine/Crimea.
July 22, 2016 - Wikileaks dumps the DNC emails on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, helping hold down Clinton's favorability among an incensed left and boosting Trump's RNC bump while holding Clinton to her lowest polling of the cycle. July 27, 2016 - Trump tells the press that he would consider lifting sanctions on Russia and "jokingly" instructs Russia to continue to hack Clinton "if they're listening." It would be his last press conference of the election.
Now, of course, we know that:
The hacking was directed by Russia to help Trump win the election. Wikileaks timed their dumps to hurt Clinton's campaign. What has the Trump team been up to since then? Trump advisor Carter Page is under investigation for his ties to Russia. He's continued to visit Moscow in spite of that investigation.
The man who most likely offered Page the deal to offer to Trump was found dead from gun shot wounds in the back of his car in Moscow in December. The Russian state press has called his death a heart attack since the initial report (...in the back of his car, in an alley).
Trump advisor Paul Manafort, who left his official role as campaign chair last summer, is under investigation for his ties to Russia. Manafort reemerged after the election to advise Trump on cabinet positions...
Rex Tillerson, former Exxon CEO, emerged as a dark horse candidate for Secretary of State shortly thereafter. Tillerson has extensive business ties to Russian oil and lobbied for a reduction in sanctions while at Exxon. He has deep ties to the company that offered Carter Page the equity deal, may be hiding oil assets in offshore tax shelters as he has in the past, and has been awarded the Russian Order of Friendship honor by Putin.
Former military intelligence officer, and Trump's National Security Advisor, Gen. Michael Flynn is under investigation for his communications with Russia following a December increase in sanctions by Pres. Obama. The Trump team have defended those calls with various conflicting explanations. After getting kicked out of the Obama DIA for his insubordination and islamaphobia, Flynn - the veteran intelligence office, cozied up to Putin.
Finally there is Trump advisor Roger Stone - a former business partner to Paul Manafort who cut his teeth in politics as one of Nixon's dirty trixsters. Stone outed himself as a back-channel communicator between Wikileaks's Assagne and the Trump campaign back in November. In his spare time before the election, Stone led the charge to cement the election as rigged in case of a Clinton victory. He is also under investigation by US intelligence. During the campaign many described Trump as a useful idiot of Russia. His actions since then may determine that an underestimation.
Trump is speaking with Putin soon regarding the lifting of sanctions.
Leaks, unsubstantiated though given the above hardly far fetched, have identified Trump as a Russian asset cultivated over at least the last five years.
Allegations have emerged that Russia has both the carrot of the oil money and the stick of kompromat - incriminating evidence used as blackmail - to encourage Trump's pro-Putin action.
Russia has arrested two high ranking Russian cyber intelligence officials for treason - potentially because of their role as US spies.
A third Russian hacker is currently in a US-Russian tug of war while in jail in Prague, with a potential connection to the Huma Abedin emails that were discovered in October and which may have tipped the election to Trump.
Russian officials are celebrating the election of Trump and are joyous over their efforts to elect him.
John McCain laments that we have no unified response to Russian cyber-intrusion, which he likened to an act of war.
We're getting fucked, royally, by a Trump-Putin alliance that is out for oil money and the destruction of western democracies. That's potentially why John Lewis and other Democratic law makers who left a recent intel briefing on the Russian interference called Trump "illegitimate" and part of a Russian conspiracy.