REPORT: Donald Trump’s Niger scandal tied to Russian sanctions and Blackwater’s private army

The Trump administration still refuses to say what the U.S. soldiers were doing in Niger when they were killed, but it’s not difficult to connect the dots. Just seven weeks earlier, the government of Niger had signed a military cooperation deal with the government of Russia. Although it was left unstated in the official press release, the deal was almost certainly rooted in Russia’s interest in the rapidly increasing oil production in Niger. It’s all but impossible that the U.S. would have been running a military op in Niger just weeks after the signing of that deal, unless it was part of a larger Russian op. But that’s just the beginning of the trouble for him.

Trump appears to be trying to cover up the op in Niger because it was tied to Russian oil interests. Not only would that make Trump look even more beholden to Russian President Vladimir Putin, it could also be in violation of the Russian sanctions bill that Trump grudgingly signed into office in August. There are also two other aspects of the Niger debacle that are personally scandalous to Trump.



Neighboring Chad pulled its own troops out of Niger in protest of Trump’s Muslim ban, which may have left U.S. troops more vulnerable and indirectly led to their deaths. In addition, the U.S. op in Niger relied at least partially on a private army. Blackwater founder Erik Prince, the brother of Trump’s Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, has recently encouraged Trump to use private armies in Africa. In other words, a family member of Trump’s own administration may have personally profited from the Niger military op.