by Marilyn Assenheim
Much has been written about the first Republican debate on FOX. Opinions
are all over the map. What merits further discussion, however, is how
Roger Ailes’s ratings smash Thursday night was little short of a
dismissive lynching. Featuring Donald Trump as the lynchee. Mercifully,
most of the onstage political mob (with a few, notable exceptions) were
on their game and refused to be whipped into the frenzy Megyn Kelly,
Chris Wallace and, to a lesser degree, Brett Baier tried their hardest
to compel.
To borrow a phrase from a Facebook post Thursday night, “the RNC
Assassination Squad” was out, in full force. This, from a prominent
member of the Republican Party who is documented to despise Donald
Trump. If he noticed, how suspect are the glowing reviews of the FOX circus, from both sides of the political aisle?
Megyn Kelly was, shamefully, the key offender. From transcripts of the debate, Kelly asked reasonable questions of the other candidates focusing on policy, Medicaid or security:
–“Dr. Carson. You are a successful neurosurgeon, but you admit that
you have had to study up on foreign policy, saying there’s a lot to
learn.”
— “Governor Kasich, You chose to expand Medicaid in your state, unlike several other governors on this stage tonight…”
— “Governor Christie. You’ve said that Senator Paul’s opposition to the
NSA’s collection of phone records has made the United States weaker and
more vulnerable…” But Kelly’s first question to The Donald, made FOX’s position absolutely clear:
— “Mr. Trump …You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.’” Fair and balanced. Yeah, right.
The attacks became even more pronounced. Chris Wallace, in his
familiar, autocratic role, tried to force Mr. Trump to speak “directly
to” Governor Bush about Bush’s opinion that Trump’s statements about
immigration were “extraordinarily ugly.” Trump replied “This was not a
subject that was on anybody’s mind until I brought it up at my
announcement. And I said, Mexico is sending. Except the reporters,
because they’re a very dishonest lot, generally speaking, in the world
of politics, they didn’t cover my statement the way I said it.” Wallace
got even more confrontational: “I’ll give you 30 seconds to answer my
question…” Wallace tried, unsuccessfully, to get other candidates to
vilify Trump on the immigration issue.
To Wallace’s annoyance, Governor Kasich praised Trump instead.
Wallace, frustrated, then attempted to get Senator Rubio to badmouth
Trump, stating “let me see if I can do better with you…”
Wallace’s next question to Trump dealt with Trump’s bankruptcy, staging
it as if Trump had heartlessly booted orphans out in the snow. It
didn’t work; Wallace tried to cut off Trump’s response. Trump wouldn’t
allow it.
The attack tag team hit its lowest point when waspish Kelly asked the following of Donald Trump:
“Mr. Trump…in this campaign, your critics say you often sound more
like a Democrat than a Republican, (your) calling several of your
opponents on the stage things like clowns and puppets. When did you
actually become a Republican?”
Needless to say, Mr. Trump handled the attacks well and had rational
responses which the FOX “assassination squad” did not want its audience
to hear. Bloomberg News
even cited FOX’s unprofessional behavior rebuking Fox News host Megyn
Kelly for her questioning comparing it to “something Rachel Maddow would
ask.”
The meme that Donald Trump “attacks” fellow candidates is, plainly
put, a lie. What he did do is respond to attacks made on him by other
candidates, first. Unwillingness to take a beating is a large part of
Donald Trump’s wide-spread appeal. When political wishful thinking is
questioned, however, it’s like football. Often, the guy responding to a
blow gets tossed out of the game.
There was plenty to despise about FOX’s disgraceful performance,
other than how they attempted to relegate the number one candidate in
the polls to the dog house; refusing to ask more than two questions of
Ted Cruz, talking more than the candidates, highlighting a Frank Luntz
focus group that was entirely about trashing Donald Trump, FOX
commentators waxing about how “mean” Donald Trump was to Megyn Kelly
(?!?), and Megyn Kelly immediately following the debate with commentary
devoted almost entirely to devaluing Donald Trump, including interviews
with DNC chair-harpy Debbie Schultz, the two practically cackling about
Donald Trump’s “misogynism.” The good news was that, largely, the candidates conducted themselves
intelligently and respectably, with a few stars emerging; not the ones
perhaps preordained by FOX but, emerging nonetheless. Brett Baier was
the only moderator of any value among the mediators. Baier was all that
stood in the way of the debate completely deteriorating into just
another reality show. The next Republican debate
will air in September on CNN with moderators Jake Tapper and Hugh
Hewitt. CNN won’t have to raise the bar much to improve on FOX’s circus.
oped: Interesting read...not sure about it though, maybe Donald Trump and or Vlad Putin can validate the authenticity of this report!
By:
Sorcha Faal
A sobering confidential report released in
the Kremlin today by the Office of the President (OP) shows that Russia’s top leadership is currently
in turmoil after having received from US presidential candidate Donald Trump a private letter
addressed to President Putin wherein this American billionaire appears to have
predicted yesterday’s death of US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and
which further suggests that this death may have possibly been a politically
motivated murder.
According to this report, on 12 February, the
Permanent Mission of the Russian
Federation to the United Nations, located in New York
City, received a “delivered
by hand” “communication package”
from The Trump Organization that contained
a private letter from Donald Trump to President Putin and requested its
immediate “secure transmission” to Russia’s leader in Moscow. Though having never met Donald Trump, this
report says, President Putin had previously praised this American billionaire
by calling him “bright and
talented” due to Trump’s apparent distaste for further involving the
United State in wars around the world—and by Trump’s knowing, like all top
global business titans do, the correct “protocol/procedure”
for sending direct secure communications to the Kremlin, his letter to
President Putin was sent.
The main focus of Donald Trump’s letter to
President Putin, this report details, were his concerns relating to the then
presently ongoing 12 February Military-Industrial
Commission meeting being held in the Kremlin reviewing the 2015 defence
procurement programme results and examining the current and future outlook for
the Federation’s defence industry’s development—a rather ordinary meeting that
was then pushed into global prominence after Prime Minister Medevdev, while
speaking to reporters in Germany just an hour before this meeting started,
warned that world powers must force all sides to sit down at the negotiating
table and “not
start yet another war on Earth.”
With the Western propaganda media then
proclaiming that Prime Medvedev was threatening World War III, this report
continues, Donald Trump in his letter to President Putin “appealed for calm” from Russia’s leadership and explained in detail
his personal views on the current US presidential race that he foresees himself
winning—and upon his becoming President, he told President Putin, it would user
in a new era of “peace and prosperity”
for both Russia and America.
However, this report grimly notes, while
explaining his private analysis to President Putin “showing/proving” that he, Trump, would become the next American
President, he further expressed his “grave
concerns” regarding the present US government structure, and the Bush
Family specifically, who he warned may attempt to harm him, or other supporters
of his, as the reality of his winning became fact. While this report does note that Donald Trump
in the past has exhibited “controversial/conspiratorial”
tendencies (such as his
“birther” stance that President Obama
is not an American citizen), his argument to President Putin outlining his
“grave concerns” in this letter do
deserve to be further examined. Particularly, this report says, was Donald
Trump’s stating in this letter that his “main
adversary”, Jeb Bush,
comes from a family whose wealth was made prior to and during World War II when
their families patriarch, Prescott
Bush, colluded
in the financing of the German Nazi regime of Adolph Hitler.
Even worse, this report says, Donald Trump in
his letter further states that the reward given to George H. W. Bush for
masterminding the assassination of President Kennedy was the directorship of
the CIA, in 1976, by President
Gerald Ford—who himself was one of the main conspirators covering up the
assassination of President Kennedy in what is now known as the Warren Commission Report.
Once in control of the CIA, this report
continues, Donald Trump in his letter then states that George H.W. Bush helped
in the establishment of the offshore Bank of Credit and Commerce International
(BCCI)
that managed the finances of America’s blackest operations—including the
funding of Osama bin Laden and the bin Laden Families payment of millions of
dollars directly to the Bush Family.
Though the accumulated prima facie [based
on the first impression] evidence against
the Bush Family generating the “grave
concerns” Donald Trump has that his life may be in danger from them, this
report says, his ending of this letter to President Putin is what has become
concerning after he, Trump, stated: “I
can promise you this, I will NEVER hold a meeting with you in Texas, neither
one of us might not come out alive!” To if Donald Trump in making this statement
to President Putin was intending to be “darkly
humorous”, this report concludes, isn’t fully known until further
clarification can be made—but what is known is that in less than 24 hours after
President Putin’s receipt of Trump’s letter, the US presidential race was
thrown into chaos and confusion after the sudden and unexpected death of US
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia…in
Texas.
To say that Ted Cruz is under attack would be an understatement.
What
we’ve witnessed in the past few days is the establishment coming at Ted
with everything they have. And Donald Trump is their lead
spokesperson.
Let me explain.
Donald
Trump has positioned himself as a Washington outsider, taking no flak
from anyone. Unfortunately, many conservatives have been seduced by his
fierce rhetoric without vetting his credentials and record.
The truth is, Donald Trump is deeply entrenched within the Washington Cartel, and he has been for years.
He
began showing his true colors this week when he attacked Ted Cruz for
his promise to end all taxpayer-funded subsidies to oil, ethanol, and
sugar lobbies. Instead, Trump proposed to double subsidies to the
ethanol industry in order to win their support of his Iowa campaign.
Nothing says “crony capitalism” more than government handouts to
cherry-picked corporations. Yet Donald Trump embraces them, and even
wants to expand them beyond what Barack Obama has done.
Donald Trump actually went so far as to call Ted Cruz “worse than Hillary Clinton” because he wants to stop sending our tax dollars to crony capitalists in the ethanol industry.
Trump
then went on to boast, “We’ve been contacted by all of the
Establishment types. They all want to know how do they get involved
with the campaign.” When Donald Trump begins to brag that the
Washington Establishment is clamoring to work with him, it can mean only
one thing… they are more terrified of Ted Cruz than they are of Donald
Trump. Need proof? Just yesterday, Bob Dole – a Republican who
opposed Ronald Reagan in 1980 - said that Donald Trump would be a
better choice than Ted Cruz because he could “work with” the Democrats
in Congress. “He’s kind of a deal maker.” The Washington
Cartel is making their move. They are abandoning Marco Rubio because
they know he can’t win, and they are moving their support to Donald
Trump, their new favorite “deal maker.”
Once again, the
Establishment is trying to silence us and hand-pick a nominee who will
cut deals with the liberals, rather than fight to bring our nation back
from the brink.
Thankfully, grassroots conservatives are
coalescing behind Ted Cruz because they know he is the proven
conservative we can trust to take down the Washington Cartel - not cut
deals with them. If
you haven’t already, check out our recent video on the stunning array
of conservative leaders that have endorsed Ted - the most amazing
nationwide convergence of conservatives since Ronald Reagan.
The
choice is clear. “We the People” can either nominate Donald Trump, the
choice of the Washington Cartel, or Ted Cruz, the proven conservative we
can trust to keep his word.
Here at Reigniting the Promise, we’ve chosen Ted Cruz. We can count on Ted to reignite the promise of America.
We
are a group of dedicated conservatives fighting against the Washington
Establishment. We currently have boots on the ground in Iowa, New
Hampshire, and South Carolina helping to get Ted Cruz elected president.
Unlike Donald Trump, we
don’t receive limitless funds or free airtime. But we do have a solid
ground game that’s charging ahead to ensure victory for Ted Cruz in key
primary states. Are you ready to join us?
If you can’t volunteer, then please consider a financial contribution.
Remember, every dollar you give goes toward defeating Donald Trump and
the Washington Cartel and helps send Ted Cruz, the proven conservative
we can trust, to the White House in 2016.
oped: Ha the clue being *trolls* yes indeed The Donald is one smart cookie...he removed himself from the debate on birtherism...and left it to bloggers and MSM to continue the debate..yes Barry Barack Hussein Soetoro Davis Obama or whatever his real name is does in fact have a real birth certificate...the question has never been settled as to which name it has on it...as Barry Obama Jr has never released his original LFBC just a cheap debateable copy of whatever...lol SEE: http://sharlaslabyrinth.blogspot.com/2016/07/presidentobamanotbarry-calling-bs-on.html
Two pretty impressive things took place on Friday’s episode of the
2016 Presidential campaign. First, Donald Trump finally announced that
he was 100% sure that President Barack Obama was indeed an
American-born-American. Secondly, Mr. Trump trolled the media so hard
that he instantly became an even bigger Rockstar among his already
adoring fans.
How did Mr. Trump “troll” the media?
The Trump campaign leaked news on Thursday evening that he would be
making an announcement about President Obama’s birth certificate at his
planned Friday press conference. Hearing this, the entire media machine
erupted and every outlet then decided that they would run Trump’s event
LIVE on their networks. LIVE!
When the program began, the Trump campaign marched out military hero after military hero offering their support
for Mr. Trump’s campaign. For more than half an hour a cavalcade of
military stars from generals, to war heroes, to the families of our
fallen expressed their support for Trump’s candidacy! It was TV gold. It
was campaign gold. The media has been telling Americans for months that
Mr. Trump’s lack of foreign policy experience terrifies our military
leaders, and on Friday the media proved their own narrative wrong when
they broadcast so many military icons arguing just the opposite.
Trump's
campaign hyped up change on birther issue. And now that TV networks
carrying it live, we've had 20 mins of veterans endorsing Trump
About halfway through the spectacle the media realized what the Trump
campaign had done, but by then it was too late — America had a new,
broader picture of Donald Trump. Some networks, like CNN, pulled back
from the parade of endorsements, but they didn’t leave the scene.
Instead, they pushed the military supporters to the background while
they discussed the Trump campaign’s ethics, only going back to the event
when the candidate himself walked out onto the stage.
In fact, over at CNN, Jake Tapper got so angry that he argued that this spoke to the Trump campaign’s “integrity.”
“I am grateful for the growing support of highly respected
retired generals and admirals who have been so successful in defending
our country. Her (Hillary Clinton’s) campaign of 2008 started the
‘birther’ controversy, I finished it. I finished it. President Barack
Obama was born in the United States. Period. Now we all want to get back
to making America strong and great again.”
Yes. Donald Trump just said that Barack Obama was an American born in
the United States and yes, he blamed Hillary Clinton for the entire
“birther” movement. Epic.
Here is the campaign’s full statement on the issue: “Hillary Clinton’s campaign first
raised this issue to smear then-candidate Barack Obama in her very
nasty, failed 2008 campaign for President. This type of vicious and
conniving behavior is straight from the Clinton Playbook. As usual,
however, Hillary Clinton was too weak to get an answer. Even the MSNBC show Morning Joe admits that it was Clinton’s henchmen who first raised this issue, not Donald J. Trump.
In 2011, Mr. Trump was finally able to bring this ugly incident
to its conclusion by successfully compelling President Obama to release
his birth certificate. Mr. Trump did a great service to the President
and the country by bringing closure to the issue that Hillary Clinton
and her team first raised. Inarguably, Donald J. Trump is a closer.
Having successfully obtained President Obama’s birth certificate when
others could not, Mr. Trump believes that President Obama was born in
the United States. Mr. Trump is now totally focused on bringing jobs back to
America, defeating radical Islamic terrorism, taking care of our
veterans, introducing school choice opportunities and rebuilding and
making our inner cities safe again.” – Jason Miller, Senior Communications Advisor
Friday was absolute proof that Donald Trump has complete mastery of our national media. He purchased an hour and a half of FREE national
advertising… and he didn’t spend a dime. He has the media eating out of
his hand. He knows the direction they’re moving before they even seem
to. Chris Cilliza of the Washington Post said it like this:
The most amazing thing was that it took the Republican nominee 29
minutes to deliver those three sentences. The event was slated to start
at 10 am eastern. It wasn’t until 11 am that it actually began — with
Trump touting his new hotel and proclaiming that it is likely to be one
of the best in the world. He then ceded the stage to a parade of
decorated military veterans who testified to his toughness, his judgment
and his temperament.
Cable networks seemed to not know what to do. All three of them —
MSNBC , Fox News and CNN — stayed with the generals’s testimonials for
the better part of 20 minutes. That’s a remarkable amount of free cable
time to dedicate to a series of surrogates testifying to how great one
of the two party nominees is. The networks eventually cut away from the generals but then Trump
was back at the mic — roughly 90 minutes after his event was originally
slated to start. Meaning that he drew an hour and a half of live
coverage for:
An empty podium
A series of military endorsements/testimonials
Three sentences from Trump himself — one that is totally false and two others that represent atotal reversal from a position he held as recently as, well,Thursday night. Many members of the media were unhappy with what happened on Friday,
Hillary Clinton argued that the press conference was a complete
disgrace, and Democrats across the nation quipped that it was proof that
Trump was untrustworthy. However, what most Americans saw was this:
many important former military leaders support Donald Trump and whatever
he says is important enough for the media to spend an hour and a half
of live TV waiting to hear it. This was a big win for Mr. Trump, no
matter how you look at it.
By the way… Hillary Clinton was not amused.
[ Donald Trump with his father, Fred Trump, after graduating from Wharton in 1968.]
oped: Yes indeed...people need to do their homework and research candidates before carte'blanche supporting and voting...don't rely on pundits nor MSM... they have their own agendas not fair and balanced as they claim! Ha X-Files "The truth is out there"
PHILADELPHIA
— The new student arrived at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton
business school in 1966, driving a Ford convertible and sporting a mop
of blond hair as outsized as his ambitions. A junior transfer from
Fordham University in the Bronx, the young man was an outsider on the
Ivy League campus in Philadelphia, with few friends.
But that did not temper his swagger.
When a professor asked students in his small class why they had chosen to study real estate, the new student stood up.
“I’m going to be the king of New York real estate.”
The professor peered over his glasses and said, “What’s your name, son?”
“I am Donald Trump.”
Some of the other students rolled their eyes.
“Sit down, you [expletive],” Louis Calomaris recalled thinking, with a laugh. “That was our introduction to Donald Trump.”
The brash, blunt, and sometimes bombastic personality
that has helped Trump upend the early stages of the 2016 Republican
presidential primary campaign — and which has been a hallmark of his
business and reality TV entertainment careers — was already in full
bloom during his college years, according to more than a dozen Wharton
classmates interviewed by the Globe.
“I recognize this person,”
said Joseph Cohen, who was in Trump’s tightknit group of real estate
students. “He was certainly verbal, and unequivocal. If he had something
to say, he said it. Like he says today.”
Calomaris agreed, “The same style, same outspokenness, same braggadocio. It’s quintessentially Don.”
But
while Trump frequently boasts that his undergraduate degree from the
elite Wharton School demonstrates that he has the brains and knowledge
to lead the nation — “like, super genius stuff,’’ in his words — he
appears to have left little impression on the school itself, outside a
small orbit of fellow students.
His former classmates said he
seemed a student who spoke up a lot but rarely shined in class, who
barely participated in campus activities, shunned fraternity parties,
and spent most of his spare time pursuing his dream: using his
advantages as the son of a prominent New York real estate developer to
get an early start on the business career that would make him very, very
rich.
Unlike many of the students around him, who hoped to
enrich themselves the old-fashioned way — that is, quietly — Trump had
an in-your-face attitude about his quest for money from his first day on
campus, said his former classmates.
“Was he a little into himself? Yeah, he was the Donald,” said
William Specht. “Even then, he was a little into himself. He had the
confidence.”
Yet even as he trumpets his connections to the school, he is anything
but legendary on the campus. Few people there today even realize he
attended and, having made no major donations to the school he and three
of his children attended, there is no Trump Hall or Trump-titled
anything at Penn.
“I had a really great experience. They were terrific
people, a lot of smart people,” Trump said in an interview with the
Globe about his college years. “One of the things it does is it gives
you confidence. You’re with the smartest people, and you’re able to do
very well with the smartest people. When you come out, you feel good
about yourself.”
Told that the Globe had contacted a number of the
nearly 300 members of his graduating class, Trump said, “I hope they
said good things about me generally, huh? They should. I mean what’s not
to say good about?”
Donald Trump in the living room of his penthouse apartment on New York's Upper East Side in 1976.
Forthrightness valued
Even before arriving on the leafy campus at the University of
Pennsylvania, Trump had some cause for confidence. During his high
school years at New York Military Academy, a boarding school for boys 60
miles north of Manhattan, he stood out as an athlete, pitching for the
baseball team and playing tight end on the football team. He also played
soccer on a team dominated by students from Latin America, and was
voted class “Ladies Man’’ by his all-male peers.
Among his duties
was storing and maintaining the M1 rifles for the cadets on his dorm
floor. He was so meticulous about cleanliness that one former roommate
remembers him folding his underwear into squares and stacking them
neatly on the shelf. Some of his childhood friends said Trump’s
blunt speaking style may be rooted in his years at the military academy,
where he was sent at age 13 after some disciplinary issues. (He punched
his second-grade music teacher, he wrote in a 1987 book, because he
didn’t think the teacher knew enough about music.)
“Honesty and straightforwardness was the rule of law” at the
academy, said Ted Levine, one of Trump’s high school roommates who now
runs a packaging and supply company in New Jersey. “It got ingrained in
us that you don’t lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do . . .
You just say the way it is.”
During rides home from school on a Port Authority bus, the young
Donald would point out all the buildings built by his father, Fred
Trump, a well-known developer who specialized in apartment complexes.
“We’d
go through Queens and he’d say, ‘My dad, he built all those homes over
there,’ ” said Specht, a Trump classmate in high school as well as at
Wharton who went on to a career in investment banking. “He’d look out,
very proud.”
Trump said in the interview that it was his having
spent so much time away from home that led him not to apply to Wharton
as a freshman. Instead, he spent his first two college years living at
home in Queens and commuting to Fordham.
“I had very good marks.
And I was a good student generally speaking,” Trump said. “But I wanted
to be home for a couple of years because I was away for five years. So I
wanted to spend time home, get to know my family — when you’re away,
you’re away right?”
After two years at Fordham, “I got in quickly and easily” to the Wharton undergraduate program, Donald Trump said.
After two years at Fordham, “I got in quickly and
easily” to the Wharton undergraduate program, Trump said. “And it’s one
of the hardest schools to get into in the country — always has been.”
Around
the time Trump was admitted, there were 8,000 candidates vying for
1,700 spots in the freshman class, according to school records. The
process could be more difficult for transfer students like Trump.
Tuition was $1,770 for the academic year.
Flipped properties in college
Trump arrived on a campus dotted with elm trees and featuring a
prominent statue of Benjamin Franklin, surrounded by a combustible and
violent city. The campus was gripped by anger over the Vietnam War.
Trump received draft deferments while in college and, just after
graduation, he was granted a medical deferment for what Trump has since
said was bone spurs in his heels. Trump said he did not
participate with his fellow Penn students in antiwar demonstrations. “I
wasn’t a fan of the Vietnam War, that I can tell you,” he said. “But I
wasn’t a marcher.”
Trump rented an apartment close to campus in a
four-story row house that a fellow tenant remembers being infested with
cockroaches. The area was so run down that a burned-out car sat out
front for weeks before the city finally removed it.
His senior
year, Trump lived a few blocks away in an old building about to be
condemned and torn down. The rooms were small, with little more than a
bed, a closet, and a kitchenette with a small refrigerator and a
two-burner stove. It sat across from a popular bar called the Bull and
Barrel that offered hamburger specials for 20 cents.
“They weren’t great,” Trump says of his accommodations. “They were old townhouses with 12 units in each, small units.”
He
drove a green Ford Fairlane convertible, and had a fondness for fried
oysters from an off-campus Howard Johnson’s. He stuck out by carrying a
briefcase on campus while most students toted books under their arms.
“I
could tell he was different,” said Ted Pollard, who transferred to
Wharton the same year as Trump and later founded a health information
company. “We were all preppies in our tweed coats and polka dot ties. He
was dressed up in a nice sports coat and jacket. He was just more
businesslike.” “He was cut from a different cloth, and it was
quite obvious,” he added. “He was more aloof. More focused than we were
. . . We were wondering what we wanted to do when we grow up. He was
already there.”
Trump had one clear advantage
over his peers: a financial head start from his father. With about $2
million in loans from his dad, he confirmed, he started buying up
properties in Philadelphia soon after he arrived at Wharton.
“It’s always been a natural instinct,” he said. “I would fix up
houses, fix up little buildings. Fix them up and sell them, rent them
and live in them, and do all sorts of things with them. Made a little
money during college.”
In a review of Philadelphia property
records in the 1960s, the Globe couldn’t locate any with Trump’s name,
but he said that even then he used aliases to hide his involvement.
“I
didn’t want people to know I was buying, because I started to develop a
good reputation for being a good buyer,” he said. “Once they start
knowing your name, the price goes up. So I would use corporate names or I
would use different names. I developed a little reputation for making
good deals and I didn’t want them to charge me. If they knew my name,
they would have charged me more money. Some things never change.”
Trump said his good track record of flipping properties pleased his father.
“He
was always impressed — he was a strong guy, my father — he was always
impressed I never failed. I would always buy them and sell them for more
than I bought them for.’’
Absent from campus life
Trump the undergraduate declined invitations to attend frat parties.
He didn’t drink alcohol then, and says he still doesn’t. He did not join
any extracurricular groups. The man who would later promote his image
around the world did not even show up for his college yearbook photo. In
the yearbook’s “class prophecy,’’ with its predictions on where
classmates would end up — gossip columnists, surgeons, Olympians,
Supreme Court justices, were among the professions named — Trump isn’t
mentioned.
“You know, I wasn’t Trump then, you understand?” Trump said. “I was Trump, but I wasn’t Trump.”
One
reason for his low profile in campus life was his work schedule and his
off-campus ambitions. “He always complained that every weekend he had
to go home to New York and work like a dog for his dad. He whined about
that,” said Terry Farrell, who had an introductory economics class with
Trump. “Every weekend, he’d vanish . . . I felt sorry for him.”
Trump was, however, around enough to take note, like most other men
on campus, of one particular student: Candice Bergen, the homecoming
queen who would soon trade campus life for Hollywood glamour, before
later becoming famous as TV’s Murphy Brown.
“I had seen him around
campus,” Bergen recalled in a 1992 address at Penn. “He was pretty
hard to miss — he wore a two-piece burgundy suit with matching burgundy
patent leather boots and, a particularly nice touch, a matching burgundy
limousine.’’
The Donald asked Candice out. She turned him down.
“It’s true,” Trump said in an interview.
“She
was so beautiful,” he said. “She was dating guys from Paris, France,
who were 35 years old, the whole thing. I did make the move. And I must
say she had the good sense to say, ‘Absolutely not.’ ”
[ Candice Bergen, then 18, posed after being named Miss University of Pennsylvania in 1963.]
Did not stand out academically
Trump did make a big impression on the small group of fellow real
estate students. They describe him as cocky but fun, boastful but with a
bit of tongue-in-cheek.
“He had strong opinions. He was a
confident person. There were only five or six of us in the [real estate]
major and a lot of us had strong opinions,” said Cohen, a sports
television executive who has continued to work with Trump over the
years. “The difference was he had access to real money to make his
dreams come true.”
Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
Trump posed with his Cadillac in New York in 1976. Trump was focused on building a real estate empire, one that would exceed the one his father had already amassed.
“He loved real estate, and loved to talk about it,” said Ted Sachs,
who sat next to Trump in finance class and would drive him to HoJo’s.
“And he did most of the talking.”
“But he knew a direction and I
had none,” added Sachs, who is now a financial adviser working in
Illinois and Florida. “He had it. That’s clear.”
Trump says he was well liked. But he himself did not think much of his peers.
“It
didn’t take me long to realize that there was nothing particularly
awesome or exceptional about my classmates,” Trump wrote in his 1987
book, “The Art of the Deal.” “I could compete with them just fine.”
But Trump was not an exceptional student. He did not graduate with
honors. Some in his classes don’t recall him raising his hand all that
often. “Don was a bright guy, but I’d say a disinterested
student,” said Calomaris, who now works as a restaurateur, business
consultant, and professor. “What he was really interested in was how to
make deals, and leverage financing. He was always looking for the quick
deal, the fast kill. He looked with disdain at the grunt work.”
“Tact wasn’t his strong suit then and it isn’t now,” he added. “He was always kind of disdainful of the academic process.
“I could tell half the time he didn’t read the assignment,” he added. “He’d bluff his way through it.” Trump
says he was a good student, but he declined a request to release his
transcripts — something that he called on President Obama to do in 2011 —
saying he would only release his if Obama does first. “I’d love
to do it, if he does it,” Trump said. “I never understood why he didn’t
do it. I actually offered him $5 million to do it, if you remember . . .
He still didn’t do it.”
Donald Trump's name in the 1968 Wharton yearbook, on a page of those who were not photographed. Trump was named entrepreneur of the year by Wharton
in 1984, he was on the school’s oversight board in 1987, and his photo
used to hang on a Hall of Fame wall honoring highly successful alumni
(it was stolen in 1991, according to the school newspaper, and a
spokesman for the school said he is not aware of any current Hall of
Fame). But there is no physical reminder on campus of Trump’s presence there, in part because he has not donated enough.
“I
may at some point. I have great feeling for the school,” Trump said.
“It’s something I could conceivably do. I’ve donated, but nothing very
substantial.”
Poised to build an empire
On graduation day, Trump and his Wharton classmates were seated near
the front of the auditorium. The commencement address was given by
William S. Paley, a Wharton alum who was a pioneer at CBS in a medium
that Trump would later master: television.
Trump, dressed in a
black gown and yellow sash, paused with his father outside a granite
building for a photo. Fred Trump is beaming, and his son would soon
begin working with his father, building his own real estate empire.
Trump
would attempt to become, as he said when he first arrived on campus,
the next Bill Zeckendorf, a legendary Manhattan developer known for
flamboyance.
“The weather was beautiful, my parents were there,
and it was a nice day,” Donald Trump remembers. “You graduate from a
great school. I did well. That was the beginning right? The real
beginning was that day. It was terrific.”
[Note: The Donald did vote for Obama...hello]
by:Pamela Geller Donald Trump
is wrong on the First Amendment. He's wrong on the cornerstone of our
democracy. The freedom of speech is elemental. If he doesn't get that,
he couldn't possibly be a good President.
For a man who so very much enjoys his freedom to speak, his attack on
our defense of it is curious. Trump calls me a "terrible messenger";
how would he know? Based on what, exactly? He hasn't read my books, my
blog, or the cases of our numerous First Amendment lawsuits. He opposed
the Ground Zero mosque, a battle on which we were on the forefront.
Your thoughts? Comment here.
"What's Wrong with Donald Trump," By Pamela Geller, Breitbart, July 10, 2015
Donald Trump has catapulted to the top of the Republican Party Presidential polls
because he saying in plain language what so many are thinking about
immigration. Immigration is out of control, and even most Republicans
are so afraid of the "Latino vote" that the immigration issue has become
the third rail. But Trump has numerous weaknesses – notably a huge
blind spot about the jihad threat, including a disturbing willingness to
kowtow to jihadist intimidation and surrender the freedom of speech.
And as always with Trump, it all goes back to his business interests.
After the jihad attack on our free speech event in Garland, Texas, Trump fumed:
I think it's terrible, and we have to act very strongly.
But I will say, I watched Pam prior, and it looked like she's just
taunting everybody. What is she doing drawing Muhammad?…And it looks
like she's actually taunting people — and it's disgusting that it
happened and everything else. But why are they doing [sic] drawing
Muhammad? Isn't there something else they can draw?"
I mean it's disgusting. Isn't there something else they could be doing? Drawing Muhammad?…They
can't do something else? They have to be in the middle of Texas doing
something on Muhammad and insulting everybody? What is she doing? Why is
she doing it? It's probably very risky for her — I don't know, maybe
she likes risk? But what the hell is she doing?
Megyn Kelly subsequently asked him about those remarks, and he said: "I think Pam Geller is a terrible messenger. I think she's terrible. We have enough problems without taunting and driving everybody crazy."
Kelly gave him the opportunity to reconsider his sharia outburst.
Perhaps Donald had time to rethink his initial knee-jerk reaction and
give thoughtful consideration to the implications of his dangerous
position. He had weeks to investigate and educate himself between his
initial remarks on May 4 and his appearance on The Kelly File on May 21.
Weeks. But no, he dug himself in even deeper.
Kelly challenged him: "What do we stand for as Americans if not for
freedom of speech, ability to express yourself, this speech in
particular which was in defiance, it's like the cartoon that won the
contest it had Muhammad standing there saying you can't draw me and the
person looking up to him saying, that's why I draw you." But Trump
doubled down, insisting: "I'm not the only Conservative Republican that
feels this way. They're lucky to be alive. Why with all the problems we
have, why taunt?"
It isn't about taunting, Mr. Trump. It's about defending the freedom of speech against violent intimidation.
Trump, meanwhile, is under fire for his remarks on Mexican immigrants. Because of them, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has launched a comprehensive investigation of Trump holdings. Trump said:
"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're
not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that
have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us.
They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists."
Trump was taunting Mexicans, was he not?
And while what de Blasio is doing is outrageous and wrong, Trump cannot complain. He's a "terrible messenger."
The case of Donald Trump is one of the basic freedom of speech, in
New York and in America in general. For everyone, not just for the
Donald.
What Trump clearly doesn't understand is that the freedom of speech
is the foundation of a free society. Without it, a tyrant can wreak
havoc unopposed, while his opponents are silenced.
Putting up with being offended is essential in a pluralistic society
in which people differ on basic truths. If a group will not bear being
offended without resorting to violence, that group will rule without any
opposition being possible, for all others will be living in fear,
curtailing their activities to appease the violent group. This results
in the violent group being able to tyrannize the others.
Islamic law forbids criticism of Islam, Quran, and Muhammad. If they
cannot be criticized in the United States, then we are in effect
accepting Islamic law
as overriding the freedom of speech. Is that what Donald Trump wants?
This would establish Muslims as a protected class and prevent honest
discussion of how Islamic jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam
to justify violence and supremacism.
What is behind Trump's willingness to abandon the freedom of speech? Money – lots of Trump money, in Muslim countries. Arabian Business reported in 2014 that in Dubai, "the Trump Estates includes more than 100 luxury villas overlooking a Trump-branded golf course." When a journalist asked him, "Mr. Trump, the workers who build your villas make less than $200 a month. Are you satisfied?" Trump refused to answer.
Trump has extensive holdings in Dubai. His golf club there was voted
"the Best Golf Development in the Middle East." Lawrence Glick, the
executive vice president of strategic development for The Trump
Organization, explained how Trump sees Dubai as a huge money-making
opportunity: "When you take a look at our database, which is millions of
customers that buy two-plus homes all over the world, one of the places
they want to come to is Dubai. It's kind of like a Beverly Hills meets
Las Vegas."
And that makes it clear why Trump, while addressing immigration,
doesn't speak about the hundreds of thousands coming over from Muslim
nations unvetted, battle-hardened from jihad. And while he viciously
attacks me for refusing to adhere to Islamic law, what has he said about
the Indian national who was charged in the United Arab Emirates with "insulting Islam?" Dubai is the UAE's most populous city. He has also not said a word about the American who was jailed in the UAE for "cyber slander against Islam."
At his announcement of his presidential candidacy, Trump
said this about the Islamic State (ISIS): "And, I can tell, some of the
candidates, they went in. They didn't know the air-conditioner didn't
work. They sweated like dogs. They didn't know the room was too big,
because they didn't have anybody there. How are they going to beat ISIS?
I don't think it's gonna happen."
The fact is that Donald Trump struck a chord when he spoke out on
immigration. He said a lot of things that a lot of people are thinking,
and the fact is that immigration is a critical issue, particularly now,
with our national security hanging by a thread.
But he's wrong on the First Amendment. He's wrong on the cornerstone
of our democracy. The freedom of speech is elemental. If he doesn't get
that, he couldn't possibly be a good President.
America would be hard-pressed to trust a President with extensive investments in sharia nations.
Source
oped: This article was written last month just prior to the Trump Inauguration...since January 20 the progressive left has been hit with a tsunami of corrections on the perverse Obama Administration EO's , policies, procedures and regulations by the Trump Administration , making good on all of the campaign promises ...they are in a panic mode waiting for the final shoe to fall when all their crimes will be prosecuted as they should be.This is why they are attacking so ferociously without thinking through what caused this tsunami by and for the people!
Contrary to what the mainstream media is telling the American people,
the country as a whole is excitedly awaiting the inauguration of Donald
J. Trump. While it is true that some radical leftists and establishment
politicians in America are doing everything within their power to oppose
the inauguration of Trump, most of America’s working-class is looking
forward to January 20th, 2017, seemingly more-so than they look forward
to Christmas morning or the 4th of July every year. There is a
lot to be excited about too, and I would like to dive into the positive
side of a Trump Presidency in opposition of the mainstream media, and
to give the Trump administration its deserved breakdown and assessment.
Americans should be proud of electing Donald Trump, not ashamed as the
mainstream media makes us feel.
One action that the lying mainstream media seemingly will not do is
to look into what Trump’s plans are, and discussing the positives of
such proposed policies. In fact, most mainstream outlets are on more a
political witch-hunt than they are information gathering and providing
that information to the public. They rarely discuss the proposed
policies with the public, and therefore most Americans haven’t got the
slightest clue what this man and his administration are planning for
America over the next 4 years. They think he is a Nazi, or a sexist, or a
homophobe. Well, let me break down some of these proposed policies and
inform you how these policies will affect your life as an American
directly. Trust me, Trump is no Nazi. Infrastructure: We all know simply
from driving to work each morning that our infrastructure in this
country is failing. This is typically handled locally, with states and
cities collecting taxes from the local populations and then improving
the infrastructure with those funds. Trump’s administration has plans to
inject “G” (federal government spending) into the economy in regards to
infrastructure. This will not only upgrade our roads, bridges and
hospitals, but it will also create many jobs to build all of it.
Trump’s campaign website had the following verbiage in regards to infrastructure:
Transform America’s crumbling infrastructure into a golden
opportunity for accelerated economic growth and more rapid productivity
gains with a deficit-neutral plan targeting substantial new
infrastructure investments. (Donald J. Trump, 2016)
Cybersecurity: This is a topic near
and dear to my heart, as I am a full-time IT Technician, I own a small
business in the IT field, and I recently earned a Bachelor’s Degree in
Information Assurance, which is another term for Cyber Security. One of
the biggest threats we face as Americans are threats online. Most
residential users do not experience “hacks,” however many companies do,
and many times data theft can cost people dearly in their personal
lives. Beyond this, hackers have become so good that they can literally
cut the power to an entire city while sitting in their basement and
eating a slice of pizza.
Trump’s campaign website had the following verbiage in regards to cyber security:
Order an immediate review of all U.S. cyber defenses and
vulnerabilities, including critical infrastructure, by a Cyber Review
Team of individuals from the military, law enforcement, and the private
sector.(Donald J. Trump, 2016)
The Cyber Review Team will provide specific recommendations for
safeguarding different entities with the best defense technologies
tailored to the likely threats, and will be followed up regularly at
various Federal agencies and departments.(Donald J. Trump, 2016)
The Cyber Review Team will establish detailed protocols and
mandatory cyber awareness training for all government employees while
remaining current on evolving methods of cyber-attack.(Donald J. Trump,
2016)
Veterans Affairs Reform: Again, this
is another topic which is near and dear to my heart, as I am a Veteran
of the U.S. Army. I spent nearly a decade of my life entirely dedicated
to service to this great nation, and in doing so; I myself incurred an
injury which will affect me for the remainder of my life. I myself have
experienced long wait times for doctor appointments, and I fully believe
there needs to be reformed. Our veterans are some of the best people we
have in this country, and they deserve to be taken care of once their
service has concluded. I was in a combat support role, and I still had
brutal wear-and-tear on my body. I can’t even begin to imagine how badly
our Infantryman and combat arms service-members are messing up their
bodies in service to this great nation. It is imperative that we take of
our veterans.
Trump’s campaign website had the following verbiage in regards to the Veterans Administration (VA).
Ensure our veterans get the care they need wherever and whenever
they need it. No more long drives. No more waiting backlogs. No more
excessive red tape. Just the care and support they earned with their
service to our country. (Donald J. Trump, 2016)
Support the whole veteran, not just their physical health care, but
also by addressing their invisible wounds, investing in our service
members’ post-active duty success, transforming the VA to meet the needs
of 21st century service members, and better meeting the needs of our
female veterans.(Donald J. Trump, 2016)
Make the VA great again by firing the corrupt and incompetent VA
executives who let our veterans down, by modernizing the VA, and by
empowering the doctors and nurses to ensure our veterans receive the
best care available in a timely manner.(Donald J. Trump, 2016)
Tax Plans: Now this one should be
near and dear to all of our hearts. Since America’s inception, we have
opposed a tyranny who robs the people blind via taxes. Somewhere along
the way, we have seemingly lost this spirit and we began taxing the
people and companies within our population to such an extent that it is
literally choking off the economy. Corporate tax rates, which are a
mandatory tax for all businesses, are at the highest levels they have
ever been in history at 34%. This means that the company you own, or
work for, is paying nearly 40% of their profits in taxes. If a company
makes $1,000,000, they then have to turn around and give the U.S.
Government $340,000 of that money. This is not even to mention
ObamaCare, and other federally mandated regulations and taxes. Trump
wants to lower the corporate tax rate to 15% and this would immediately
increase profits significantly to even the smallest of companies.
The new income taxes are beneficial as well. We will likely all be
bringing home more money on our paychecks both from the corporate and
the income taxes being lowered. Trump’s income tax reduction will have
more people paying taxes, and it will put more money in the individual
worker’s pocket.
Trump’s campaign website had the following verbiage in regards to taxes:
The Trump Plan will collapse the current seven tax brackets to three
brackets. The rates and breakpoints are as shown below. Low-income
Americans will have an effective income tax rate of 0. The tax brackets
are similar to those in the House GOP tax blueprint.(Donald J. Trump,
2016)
Brackets & Rates for Married-Joint filers:
Less than $75,000: 12%
More than $75,000 but less than $225,000: 25%
More than $225,000: 33%
*Brackets for single filers are ½ of these amounts
Trade: Most Americans are relatively
clueless about how trade-deals made by the government affect their
lives, however this is “yuuuge” in terms of the economy and jobs in the
United States. Trade-deals like NAFTA and the proposed Trans-Pacific
Partnership work to move jobs out of the United States and into foreign
control. Decades ago, America was becoming an economic power beyond what
any other nation on the face of the planet was capable of, and
therefore NAFTA was drafted to try to level the playing field in terms
of Gross Domestic Production (GDP). The problem with such trade-deals
is, while it does spread some wealth to other nations, it takes wealth
and jobs away from the United States.
Trump’s campaign website kept it short and sweet in regards to trade and had the following verbiage:
Negotiate fair trade deals that create American jobs, increase
American wages, and reduce America’s trade deficit. (Donald J. Trump,
2016)
Immigration: This topic is a sore one
for many Americans and personally, I understand both sides of this
argument. America truly is a nation of immigrants. I know that my
grandparents on both sides of my family were immigrants to this country,
and many of us have similar situations. I can appreciate an immigrant
who comes here legally to provide themselves and their families with a
better life. Every human on the face of the planet deserves a shot at
opportunity; however we must remain vigilant at the same time. ISIS has
publicly stated that they are using the unsecure southern border of the
United States as well as the migrant wave as a cover to infiltrate the
west. Beyond this, illegal immigration costs the taxpayers of this
country billions of dollars every year. If I want to move to Australia,
or New Zealand, or any other developed country in the world, there is a
process which must happen in order for me to do that. Many countries
require immigrants to have a job, a house and a plan for how they are
going to support themselves before they allow that immigrant to move to
their country. There needs to be a vetting process to make sure the
immigrants have good intentions and will be a benefit to that society. I
do not see why it should be any different in the United States. I have
nothing against LEGAL immigration; the main issue here lies in ILLEGAL
immigration into this country. We need to take care of our country and
the people therein, hence the plan for a wall and a crack-down on
ILLEGAL immigration.
Trump’s campaign website had the following verbiage in regard to immigration.
Prioritize the jobs, wages and security of the American people.(Donald J. Trump, 2016)
Establish new immigration controls to boost wages and to ensure that
open jobs are offered to American workers first.(Donald J. Trump, 2016)
Protect the economic well-being of the lawful immigrants already
living here by curbing uncontrolled foreign worker admissions(Donald J.
Trump, 2016)
Select immigrants based on their likelihood of success in the U.S.
and their ability to be financially self-sufficient.(Donald J. Trump,
2016)
Vet applicants to ensure they support America’s values, institutions
and people, and temporarily suspend immigration from regions that
export terrorism and where safe vetting cannot presently be
ensured.(Donald J. Trump, 2016)
Enforce the immigration laws of the United States and restore the
Constitutional rule of law upon which America’s prosperity and security
depend.(Donald J. Trump, 2016)
Health Care: Folks, let’s face it,
ObamaCare is a disaster (to quote Trump himself) and Americans should
never be federally mandated to pay for such a thing. The fines for not
having ObamaCare are increasing dramatically with each passing year, and
those Americans who did sign up for it had the promises of the Obama
administration broken in most cases. “If you like your doctor you can
keep your doctor,” turned out to be one of the biggest lies the
government has told the people of this country. They knew all-along that
this legislation was only good for insurance companies, who could now
monopolize the healthcare system. This is why Trump has repeatedly
called for repealing ObamaCare and having a free-market and competition
will naturally drive the prices of health-care down.
Trump’s campaign website had the following verbiage in regard to health-care.
Repeal and replace Obamacare with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).(Donald J. Trump, 2016)
Work with Congress to create a patient-centered health care system
that promotes choice, quality, and affordability.(Donald J. Trump, 2016)
Work with states to establish high-risk pools to ensure access to
coverage for individuals who have not maintained continuous coverage.
(Donald J. Trump, 2016)
Allow people to purchase insurance across state lines, in all 50 states, creating a dynamic market.(Donald J. Trump, 2016)
Maximize flexibility for states via block grants so that local
leaders can design innovative Medicaid programs that will better serve
their low-income citizens.(Donald J. Trump, 2016)
I can keep going on the proposed policies of the Trump
administration; however I do not think that is necessary at this point. I
have shown how Trump plans to put “America First” in his policies, and
really that is the overarching theme of his administration. Trump simply
wants to provide Americans with a free, secure and prosperous future.
As a father of a young child, I can appreciate his vision for the future
and what he will do to remedy the current political situation in the
United States.
If you want the government to begin making legislation which STOPS
stealing your money through taxation, STOP sending your jobs overseas,
STOP lying to you at every turn, STOP the corrupt-crony deals in
Washington D.C., STOP letting illegal immigrants pour over our border
and STOP having innocent people murdered in the name of Islam and ISIS,
then Donald Trump is the President you have been waiting for. If you do
NOT want these things, then maybe you are NOT in the right country.
North Korea has openings last I heard…
One thing I know for sure, is that somewhere along the line in American
history establishment politicians began selling this country out and
in-turn have sold-out the American working-class. In my humble opinion
The American working-class is the life-blood of this country. That is
not to say that no other group in America matters, but realistically, it
is the American working class that keeps this country going. It is the
working class who are paying the taxes, and it is them doing the all of
the work. If we are abandoned by our leaders and our jobs ravaged by
their policies, we should ALL be standing with leaders like Trump to try
to fix this for the future. Do any of you really want your children to
be paying so much in taxes that they cannot afford to raise children of
their own? Something has to be done about our government, and if
draining the swamp is the answer, then by all means Mr. Trump…DRAIN THAT
SWAMP!
The false narratives, the lies, and everything the establishment is
doing in an effort to stop Trump, is in essence trying to stop the
American people from having their country back. The anchors at CNN,
MSNBC, NBC, ABC, FoxNews, CBS are seemingly detached from the population
and attached to politicians. Each of these “news” outlets clearly have
an agenda, and that agenda does NOT involve Donald J. Trump, nor does it
involve YOU, the American people. They are not telling you about all of
the good which will come from a Trump Presidency, because they work
directly for the people who have been purposefully making it bad for all
of us. The mainstream media does not have your best interest at heart,
however Donald Trump does. January 20th, 2017, is a day which will live in infamy. It will be remembered as the day that Americans took their country back!
References
Donald J. Trump. (2016, October 8). www.DonaldJTrump.com. Retrieved January 16, 2017, from Policies: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies
oped: What can one say cept' the #GOP needs to WTFU hello...open your eyes learn to fight the enemy on the same terms they dish out...call em' out on hypocrisy and fraud they are very good at it learn or lose again! ie: McCain and Romney they lost because they didn't learn how to play the game : http://sharlaslabyrinth.blogspot.com/2015/07/donald-trumpcarnival-barker-extrodinaire.html
The fact that Donald Trump is winning fans in the Republican Party tells us that people feel like they are missing something.
Why is Trump so popular?
It seems like every day some conservative blog is complaining that so
many Republicans support him. I’m not a Trump fan, but I don’t think it
is hard to understand why he is getting such a positive response. A
friend of mine recently posted about this and gave me some further
thoughts on the issue. Also, check out this sad post by Jonah Goldberg wringing his hands over Republican support of Donald Trump. An excerpt:
I get
it. The base of the party is angry. They’re angry about Obama’s lawless
chicanery on immigration. They’re angry about the GOP’s patented
inability to cross the street without stepping on its own d*ck and then
having to apologize for it. They’re angry that the Left’s culture
warriors are behaving like an invading army that shoots the survivors
even after they’ve surrendered. They’re angry that Republicans have to
bend over backward so as not to offend anyone, while Democrats have free
rein (and at times free reign) to do and to say as they please.
Enter
Trump, stage left. He makes no apologies. He’s brash. I can understand
why some see him as a breath of fresh air. If you want to give him
credit for starting a worthwhile debate about sanctuary cities and
illegal immigration, fine.
So what is the lesson here? Well, if
Donald Trump is a demagogue the only reason he has an audience is
because the other Republican candidates refuse to address the issues
that matter to many Republicans.
You can’t simply ignore your customer base and not expect to get some
competition. You are begging for it. So the Republican establishment
and their pollsters and their doubletalk basically asked for someone to
come and take away the Republican base. What did you expect? They
basically invited someone like Donald Trump to come in and sweep them
away.
Frankly, I really don’t like Donald Trump much at all. But the
amazing thing is not how bad he is. The amazing thing to me is that we
didn’t get someone much worse.
I doubt Trump will win the presidency, but
when someone like Jonah Goldberg starts losing his mind over this, he
doesn’t sound very convincing. Even his partial admission about what is
going on sounds a bit condescending—which is the kind of attitude that
is only going to make people angrier and more likely to support Trump!
[See also, “Hillary Clinton Attacks Free Speech by Blaming Donald Trump for Race Violence.”]
Even if Trump is not the man, the fact is we really do need a
President who will champion the people’s rights (the real ones—life,
liberty, property, etc) and a sound economy. That is really our only
hope on a human level. But precisely because many recognize we need
someone who will stand for the truth and not bow to lobbyist and media
propaganda, we are vulnerable to “brash” speakers even if they are not
ideal.
They are still better than most of the other alternatives.
That being said, if you think that Donald Trump is a conservative, you might consider a few things Goldberg has to say. I quote:
Immigration: You seem to think he’s an immigration hardliner, and he’s certainly pretending to be. But why can’t you see through it? He condemned Mitt Romney as an immigration hardliner in 2012 and favored comprehensive immigration reform. He told Bill O’Reilly he was in favor of a “path to citizenship” for 30 million illegal immigrants:
Trump: “You have to give them a path.
You have 20 million, 30 million, nobody knows what it is. It used to be
11 million. Now, today I hear it’s 11, but I don’t think it’s 11. I
actually heard you probably have 30 million. You have to give them a
path, and you have to make it possible for them to succeed. You have to
do that.”
Question: Just how many rapists and drug dealers did Donald Trump want to give green cards to?
Abortion: In
1999 he said, “I’m totally pro-choice. I hate it and I hate saying it.
And I’m almost ashamed to say that I’m pro-choice but I am pro-choice
because I think we have no choice.”
Man, it’s like he’s channeling Thomas Aquinas there.
Now he says he’s pro-life. But I’ll
spare the mocking on this because at least he’s flip-flopping in the
right direction, and I don’t like to second guess peoples’ professed
religious convictions.
Obamacare: The
man wrote in his own book and said elsewhere that he was in favor of
Canadian-style socialized medicine — which would put him to the left of
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and on pretty much the same page as
Bernie Sanders.
Economics: People
tout the guy’s business record. But he represents almost exactly what
his supporters think he opposes. He’s a crony capitalist par excellence.
He gives to whatever politician can grease the skids for his next deal —
and he makes no apologies for it. He’s an eminent domain voluptuary. He abuses bankruptcy laws like a stack of homemade get-out-of-jail-free cards.
You have to ask yourself what reason you have for trusting anything
Donald Trump says. I’m not telling you who to vote for. I’m just
pointing out some areas of research you might want to think through.
We all want a bold truth-teller. Maybe one will appear. But we also have to be prepared for pretenders.
