Trump is a 'Russian asset', claims new Transworld book

Transworld is publishing a book suggesting Donald Trump was "successfully targeted" by Russian operatives affiliated with the Russian Mafia over a number of decades in order to implant a Russian asset in the White House.

The book, entitled House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia, is authored by Craig Unger, an American journalist and writer who also explored conflicted loyalties of US president George W Bush in House of Bush, House of Saud published with Scribner in 2004.

Unger's new book is billed as "a chilling story" that confirms American paranoias about Russian malevolence and as "the first comprehensive investigation into the decades-long relationship among Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia that ultimately helped win Trump the White House".

It begins in the 1970s when Trump was making his mark in New York real estate and ends with Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States - a moment described within the book's blurb as "the culmination of Vladimir Putin’s long mission to undermine Western democracy".

"Without Russia, Trump would not be president," it claims. "This essential book is crucial to understanding the real powers at play in the shadows of today’s world."

Henry Vines acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Sabila Khan at Penguin US. The book will be published on 14th August 2018.