Frienemies: Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin
Donald Trump is no stranger to the press, but since his presidential nomination he has been linked to an unlikely ally, Vladimir Putin. This article highlights the relationship between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin, as well as their mutual dislike for President Obama. In yesterday’s forum, Mr. Trump said Vladimir Putin has been a better leader than the current president of the United States. This article goes on to highlight Russia as the main suspect behind the cyber attacks of the Democratic party, and Mr. Putin’s clear dislike for Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump’s presidential opponent. The relationship between Mr. Putin and Donald Trump is even more unlikely in that Trump’s party does not favor Putin’s regime and he is not a friend of the United States.
This relationship, however, could have been predicted by the theory of strong and weak ties and the Strong Triadic Closure assumption. Under this theory, when two nodes are connected to the same node, those two nodes will also be connected. The strong and weak tie aspect of this theory is that when two nodes have a mutual enemy, they will forge a positive relationship. So in this case, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin share a negative relationship with President Obama, and therefore it is not surprising that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have formed a positive relationship.
www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/us/politics/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-putin.html