Comment by lapcat

> This is a decapitation strike on America by our enemies.

> if foreign governments spend money, they can elect their preferred candidates.

> We institute regime change in other counties, and I see no reason to believe we are immune.

Do we really need such conspiracy theories? There's a much more mundane explanation, which is well-documented:

"Trump’s Love for Tariffs Began in Japan’s ’80s Boom" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/15/us/politics/china-trade-d...

"Allies and historians say that his admiration of tariffs is one of his longest and most deeply held policy positions."

In the 1980s, Russia still had a state-run socialist economy, and China was just beginning to grow (albeit quickly) after its 1978 economic reforms. These countries did not purchase Donald Trump's policies.

If you're concerned about foreign influence and foreign money in American elections, you should be much more worried about Australian Rupert Murdoch, for example, who founded Fox News, or South African Elon Musk, who just spent a whopping $250 million to elect Donald Trump and is now personally dismantling the US government (although Musk's money didn't help in the local Wisconsin election), or Israel, which has had one of the most powerful and well-financed lobbies in Washington for decades.