History of the USSR's/Russia's efforts to "manipulate" American opinion, Serial failures of the U.S. "intelligence community" On July 19, 2018, the New York Times ran an op-ed by Will Hurd, the sitting Republican Congressman representing the 23rd District of Texas. It was entitled “Trump Is Being Manipulated by Putin. What Should We Do?” Mr. Hurd, identified as a “former C.I.A. officer”, began his op-ed thusly: