Why would a TV channel owned and financed by an unfriendly country support a US presidential candidate? In the case of RT, I can think of five reasons:
- The Kremlin thinks RT’s support can help Trump win. That’s naive or delusional or both, but still possible.
- Putin is trolling Americans for the fun of it.
- Putin’s team wants more instability and conflict in the US, including violent clashes between anti-Trumpists and Trumpists. Recall the gloating with which RT covered Ferguson.
- The Kremlin actually prefers Clinton so pretends to support Trump to sink him. Perhaps the Kremlin thinks it can blackmail HRC with stolen files or something.
- RT bosses think, for whatever reason, that pro-Trump coverage pleases Putin, but are getting no feedback from him.
What’s the net takeaway from all this? I like (3) and (5) the most at the moment, but cannot rule any of the others.
[…] let’s admit it) smear job. Perhaps the Kremlin, as I have argued before, does not really want Trump to win. It’s also possible that there is no consensus on the preferred candidate among […]