Is Putin Defecting From Trump?

Is Trump losing the key Kremlin constituency in the home stretch of the campaign? The Putin SuperPac’s work on Trump’s behalf has been a critical assist to Trump and a thorn in the side of Hillary Clinton. This was true as recently as last night when suspected Russian intelligence agent (or creation) ‘Guccifer 2.0’ released a new trove of Democratic emails. But this morning there’s new emails from Colin Powell in which Powell says among other things that Trump is a “national disgrace” and “international pariah”. Now it’s possible that Russian political operatives didn’t fully grasp the impact of these emails, thinking they would embarrass Powell as opposed to goad Trump into some new self-destructive act. But the upshot is that what political operatives call the so-called ‘Putin primary’ may not actually be over.