Fact Check: Was Trump ‘Installed’ as President in 2016?

No, contrary to an MSNBC contributor’s claim.

By Alec Dent

Feb 28, 2022

MSNBC show The Cross Connection featured a guest Saturday who claimed that former President Donald Trump was “installed as the president of the United States in order to weaken the alliances that were preventing Putin from achieving his goals.”

Sarah Kendzior: "Trump was installed as the president of the United States in order to weaken the alliances that were preventing Putin from achieving his goals. Alliances like NATO, our relationship with our European partners…with Ukraine." https://t.co/NNbYfcd8j8 pic.twitter.com/v2NS19oBSS
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) February 27, 2022

The guest, Sarah Kendzior, is a journalist and academic, whom The Cross Connection described as a “scholar of authoritarian states.” She is the author of Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America.

Despite Kendzior’s suggestion, there is no evidence that Russia “installed” Trump as president. The 2016 election has been thoroughly investigated, and just like in 2020, conspiracy theories about the election were found wanting.

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