" It (NYT) reported that US intelligence officials and military officers on the ground in Afghanistan became curious when they found a big stash of US dollars in Taliban hands. When the Americans questioned Taliban prisoners and conducted other inquiries, they discovered that Russian operatives had paid the money last year as a bounty to encourage the Taliban to kill coalition forces."
I highlighted the words "last year". Things have moved on from last year including a deal between the US and the Taliban. It is also not clear if the dollars were given as a pre-payment or a post payment or if the bounty was official or just a suggestion of a Russian NCO paymaster. That's all beside the point. The point is that Trump never reads his briefings ….. and just in case he does occasionally read one ….. his minders only ever give him dumbed down versions that are less likely to make him angry and unpredictable. I'm being nice to Trump here by assuming basic incompetence.
What I assume doesn't matter. What does matter is that senior ranking Republicans are asking the same questions on this and distancing themselves from Trump on other issues. These developments hint of Trump being pushed out the door by the GOP.
