Inside Trump’s Return: Old Russia Allegations Find New Life

How the Steele Dossier's Explosive Claims and Christopher Steele's New Revelations Mirror Trump's First Weeks Back in Power

In the gilded confines of the Oval Office, just weeks into Donald J. Trump’s return to the presidency, the shadows of an old scandal are resurfacing. A flurry of early actions by the 45th (and now 47th) President – from abrupt foreign policy shifts to personal score-settling executive orders – is rekindling questions first raised by the infamous Steele dossier more than eight years ago. The dossier’s unproven claims of secret Russian ties and kompromat once ignited a political firestorm and were dismissed by Trump as “fake news.” Now, buoyed by new revelations from ex-spy Christopher Steele himself, those claims are colliding with real events in 2025, lending them an uncanny new relevance.

President Trump’s early moves in office have drawn striking parallels to allegations once thought relegated to history. In early March, Trump signed an executive order targeting Perkins Coie – the law firm involved in commissioning Steele’s 2016 dossier – stripping its employees of longstanding security clearances (Axios). In a televised Oval Office ceremony, he lambasted the firm for “weaponization… against a political opponent,” effectively punishing those he blames for igniting the Russia inquiry (Axios). It was an extraordinary use of presidential power against private attorneys and a pointed reminder that Trump has not forgotten the dossier’s explosive contents. That same week, his administration quietly instructed diplomats and Treasury officials to draft options for loosening sanctions on Moscow (Reuters) – even as Russian troops remained entrenched in Ukraine. And days earlier, Trump had paused all U.S. military aid to Ukraine, brusquely pressuring Kyiv to sue for peace on the Kremlin’s terms (Deccan Chronicle). Each move, on its surface, had its own justification. Taken together, they form a pattern strikingly consistent with the behaviors and bargains the Steele dossier alleged, raising anew the question: What hold, if any, does Moscow have on Donald Trump?

Old Allegations Return to the Spotlight

When it first burst into public view in January 2017, the Steele dossier painted a lurid portrait of clandestine links between the Trump camp and Russia. Compiled by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele, the private intelligence reports described an elaborate Kremlin operation to cultivate Trump over years, allegedly culminating in a 2016 quid pro quo: Moscow would covertly assist Trump’s campaign against Hillary Clinton, and in exchange a Trump administration would adopt a softer line on Russia (Justsecurity.org) (NPR). Key among the reported promises was an “agreement to ‘sideline’ Ukraine as a campaign issue” – effectively muting opposition to Vladimir Putin’s aggressions there – and a willingness to consider lifting tough economic sanctions imposed on Russia. In hindsight, those once-speculative claims read almost like a script for Trump’s opening act in 2025.