Yes. We can no longer discuss or even understand our current geopolitical and domestic predicaments without acknowledging Trump’s historical connection to Russia, the KGB and Putin. It’s increasingly clear to me — and others — Putin is in the Oval Office.

Along with all the evidence that came out in the ”quid pro quo” impeachment trial, new allegations about Donald Trump have resurfaced —this time from Alnur Mussayev, the former head of Kazakhstan’s security service and an ex-KGB officer. Mussayev claims that Trump was groomed by Soviet intelligence during a 1987 visit to Moscow. Agents allegedly identified him as an ideal target and even assigned him the codename “Krasnov.”

This echoes earlier claims from Yuri Shvets, another former KGB operative, who has described Trump’s 1987 Moscow trip as a textbook recruitment effort. Shvets suggested that Soviet intelligence flattered Trump, dangled lucrative business deals, and seeded ideas about political power.  And sure enough, upon his return to the U.S., Trump suddenly launched a national media campaign criticizing U.S. foreign policy in ways that seemed to mirror Soviet talking points.

Additionally, there is extensive evidence that Trump businesses were kept afloat with Russian money for decades.

So stop and consider this:  America has lost its decades-long conflict with Russia. We are a vanquished nation. What we are witnessing is Putin dismantling and picking through the spoils of war. Just as the US would have considered ourselves victors if we’d had an American President steering Russian policy from inside the Kremlin, the small cadre of Putin leadership is celebrating their victory over America. America has lost a war to its greatest adversary — but no one has realised it yet.

In 1970, Marshall McLuhan said, “A guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation”—a war waged in cyberspace, not on a defined battlefield. His prediction resonates with anyone trying to make sense of our opaque information environment, or the very status of our national sovereignty.