Steve Bannon tried to figure out what Putin had on Trump: biographer

President Donald Trump shakes hand with Russian President Vladimir Putin, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, August 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Biographer Michael Wolff recalled in a new post an exchange with Steve Bannon, the former campaign manager and strategist for President Donald Trump, who now hosts his own streaming show, in which the two men tried to figure out how Trump was so easily controlled by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In his latest column, Wolff observed that Trump continues to excuse Putin regardless of his behavior, with no real understanding of why. He added that it's a puzzle even for his close advisors, like Bannon. Wolff said that he and Bannon watched Trump's 2018 news conference with Putin in Helsinki, in which Trump had his private meeting and then announced that Putin said he had nothing to do with the 2016 election.

According to Bannon, Trump looked like "a beaten dog" as he stood next to Trump.

"Bannon often ran through all the scenarios, financial and sexual, that might have put Trump’s b—s in Putin’s grip, but always concluding that, this being Trump, there was no grift or deviancy that he couldn’t wave away," Wolff wrote. "Were the pee tape to have actually surfaced, Trump, with practiced innocence, would merely say: 'I don’t know who that is. It isn’t me. Look at that, not me at all. Fake news.'"

Bannon even joked to Wolff that Putin might have the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School transcripts and was threatening to go public. Wolff called it "one humiliation" Trump may not be able to handle.

Yet, Trump continues to take every opportunity to defer to Putin. The latest is an effort to buy a tiny amount of diesel fuel from Russia and fork over $4 billion for Putin's ongoing war, despite sanctions on Russia.

Wolff thinks some of it is Trump's payback for the Russia investigation during his first term. Trump was never investigated, but 34 people and three companies were convicted after that investigation. Trump and his allies demanded a special counsel investigate the investigators of the Russia probe. There was nothing they could do other than get one low-level FBI lawyer to admit to a single count of making a false statement. Special counsel John Durham could not secure any other convictions for crimes in Mueller's Russia probe.

Wolff thinks that even revenge is secondary to his real goal: money.

He recalled speaking with Jeffrey Epstein, the trafficker and former friend of Trump's, who died in prison in 2019. Trump was notorious for filing for bankruptcy over failed business ventures. He filed for bankruptcy six times for five companies. So Trump reached a point where few banks were willing to lend him money anymore.

“Here was the advent of the parallel, unbanked economy,” Epstein said in a discussion with Wolff.

“Donald and I,” Wolff recalled Epstein laughing, “certainly understand the opportunity.”

"Remember, nobody wanted to deal with Donald. Why would you? My God," Epstein told Wolff.

Wolff explained that "all this sketchy money—and the sketchy money was suddenly rivaling the legit money—needed people who weren’t asking questions. Sketchy money needed sketchy partners."

So, Trump tried to snag a piece of the Putin empire.

So far, Trump has profited between $2 and $4 billion in his second term. Wolff said White House officials told him Trump is aiming for $20 billion by the time he leaves office.

"And he’d probably like to put in place deals that, when he returns to Mar-a-Lago, can generate for the Trump family $100 million," Wolff said.

It might be why his sons created a new crypto bank, World Liberty Financial.

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