Meanwhile, a cadre of aides, associates, and family members—including Jared Kushner, Erik Prince, Michael Flynn, Tom Barrack, Rick Gates, and Bud McFarlane—are playing a dangerous political game.

The game involves seven nations (the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Syria, Iran, and Russia) and seven seemingly unrelated subjects: Kushner’s worsening money troubles; Saudi-Qatari tensions; the Saudis’ desire for nuclear power and, eventually, the right to build a nuclear weapon; the Emiratis’ own nuclear ambitions; Saudi and Emirati hostility toward Iran, and particularly Iranian involvement in the war in Syria; Russian construction firms’ opposition to U.S. sanctions, which are hindering them from making tens of billions of dollars building new nuclear reactors in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates; and Russian actions relative to the war in Syria, which are ostensibly being coordinated with Russia’s ally, Iran. These issues engage parties that don’t at first appear connected to one another, but at least part of their correlation involves the United States dropping sanctions against the Kremlin in exchange for the promise of a big financial windfall for Trump and his relatives.

Abramson, Seth. Proof of Collusion: How Trump Betrayed America . Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.