Donald Trump is in bed with the Russians and he knows it. Why else would he hide his taxes and claim that he has never met Putin despite once claiming that he had?Earlier this week, reports began surfacing about the Republican nominee s various ties to Russian oligarchs who are aligned with Vladamir Putin, which only gained more credibility after experts found that the hackers who broke into the DNC and stole emails came from Russia.Many of Trump s own campaign advisers also have close ties to Russia and Putin has directed the state-owned media to support Trump s campaign. All of this suggests that Trump would be nothing more than Putin s puppet should he win in November.Trump, of course, denied that he has ever met Putin during an interview with CBS4 Miami.He denied having financial ties to Russian businessmen, even though he has borrowed money from them to the tune of millions of dollars because banks here in the United States are smart enough to know not to give loans to Trump and he denied ever meeting Putin. I have nothing to do with Russia, nothing to do, I never met Putin, I have nothing to do with Russia whatsoever,  Trump claimed.Here s the video via CBS.That must be news to Donald Trump Jr., who told a real estate conference in 2008 that  Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia. Furthermore, Trump claimed he met Putin during a primary debate. I got to know him very well because we were both on 60 Minutes, we were stablemates,  he said.Trump has also previously declined to say if he has personally met Putin.He also tried to become Putin s new best friend back in 2013.Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow   if so, will he become my new best friend?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2013Trump is continuing to hide his tax returns from the American public because he knows that they show damning evidence that he has deep ties to Russian oligarchs who are aligned with Vladamir Putin. The audit he claims to be going through is absolutely NOT a good excuse because an audit does not prevent anyone from releasing their taxes. That s just a fact. It s also a fact that Donald Trump just pulled a Mitt Romney and flip-flopped.Featured image via Ron Jenkins/Getty Images