Trump Operatives Paid Six Figures to Advise Pro-Russian Dodik — SkimNews
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- James Blair and Chris LaCivita were hired through a Washington law firm retained by Republika Srpska and each paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to advise Dodik ahead of Bosnia's October 4 elections, according to a New York Times report.
- Milorad Dodik met Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 29 in Moscow—five days before Bosnia's general election—and his pro-Russian SNSD party won more than 55% of votes in regional elections, maintaining its grip on Republika Srpska.
- Donald Trump initially said he was unaware of his operatives' other engagements and would fire them if a conflict of interest surfaced, but later softened his stance, telling reporters Blair and LaCivita are consultants—not White House employees—free to have multiple clients.
- Steve Bannon publicly called Blair and LaCivita "grifters" and demanded a detailed review of the money they had received, per Politico.
- Republika Srpska has paid more than $4m since the beginning of 2025 to lobbyists and political operatives linked to Trump, per DOJ filings, and on September 25 the Constitutional Court of Bosnia ruled that Republika Srpska's lobbying activities were unconstitutional.
- Dodik declared on election night: "If it had not been for Trump's magnificent victory, we would probably be political corpses today. But thanks to the new environment, we are now political winners."
Why it matters: The revelation exposes a $4m lobbying trail between a Trump-administration-aligned Bosnian Serb entity and operatives running Trump's own fundraising machine, while the same administration had lifted prior US sanctions on Dodik as a 'pragmatic' concession. With intraparty criticism from Bannon amplifying the story, the arrangement directly tests Trump's tolerance for associates doing paid work for a Putin-aligned leader who openly credits Trump for his political survival.
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