A Few Facts About Donald Trump
I don’t
usually inject politics into my blog, but because of the current sad nationwide
circumstances, I must speak out.
Here are some easily verifiable facts:
Trump had no
political experience when he first ran for president, had never held a governmental
position, his major fame being the star of a reality TV show. He told male friends
that his status as that star allowed him to “grab a woman [associated with the TV
show] by the ***sy” when he pleased. When that comment became public knowledge,
he dismissed it as “only locker-room talk.”
Accused by
journalist E. Jean Carroll of sexual molestation, he publicly ridiculed and
verbally attacked her and she received threats from his followers. In a resultant
defamation suit, a jury awarded her $5 million. Trump continued to publicly and
viciously defame her and the threats from his followers ramped up, so she sued
him again and another jury awarded her $83 million. The Trump hush money
payment to porn star Stormy Daniels has been well publicized. Trump’s third wife,
Melania, has been conspicuously absent from his side for some time as I write
this. Does anyone blame her?
After his loss to Joe Biden, Trump called Brad Raffenspurger, Republican
Georgia attorney general, and asked him repeatedly to “find” thousands of
votes, just enough to reverse the Georgia outcome from Biden to Trump. Brad steadfastly
refused and wisely recorded the conversation. Georgia did two complete machine
recounts and a full hand recount in response to heavy Republican pressure. Brad
and others testified under oath that the numbers came out the same for Biden as
the winner each time. Republican Arizona Speaker of the House Rusty Baur also testified
that Trump pressured him to overturn the Arizona vote, which Biden had won.
Rusty refused, sacrificing his own political career. In response to Republican vote
tampering accusations, some 60 judges across America ruled there was NO election
fraud. Despite this, Trump and many of his followers still claim the
2020 election was stolen. Who, in fact, has attempted to steal that election
with every devious means including setting up fake electors? Certainly not
Biden.
Day after day the far-right Fox News Network knowingly broadcast the lie
that Dominion Voting Machines had rigged the election in favor of Biden. A
court found those claims to be utter fabrications, and fined the channel $787.5
million, the largest settlement against a media outlet in American history. Yet
millions among us still trust that network for their news.
Trump is the first president in our history to refuse a peaceful
transfer of power and to fight in every way he could to overturn the certified election
results. He went so far as to summon a crowd of his supporters to Washington (“Be
there. It will be wild,” he said.), harangue them at length, claiming again
that the election had been stolen and that Vice President Pence had been
derelict in his Trump-assigned duty to refuse certifying the electoral votes. (Traditionally
a mere formality; no vice president has any authority to overturn an election,
of course.) Trump sent them, armed and openly hostile, marching on the national
Capitol, the seat of our democracy. Among his parting comments was: “. . . if you
don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country left.” Fight they did.
Capitol Police officers were overwhelmed, beaten, gassed, bear-sprayed, and
severely injured. Police Officer Brian Sicknick died. The mob battered their
way in, trashing the place as they went, destroying antiques and artifacts,
chasing after the fleeing legislators of both parties, chanting, “HANG MIKE
PENCE,” defecating on office carpets and desks. The insurrection went on for three
hours, while Trump sat in the White House watching it unfold on TV, ignoring
even the entreaties of his family members to call off the violence. The mob
only began dispersing when law enforcement was independently gaining control of
the situation anyway. Then Trump finally went on TV, telling the rioters he
loved them and sending them home. Hundreds have since been convicted in court and
are serving sentences. The series of January 6 Committee hearings exposed the
sordid details behind the riot, and nearly all the witnesses were Republicans,
as were Vice Chairperson Liz Cheney and committee member Adam Kinzinger, both
of whom sacrificed their congressional political careers to stand up for the
truth.
After meeting
with the dictator of North Korea, Trump said that Kim was “a nice young man.”
Anyone who’d like to know the truth about North Korea and the brutal Kim Un
regime should read Star of the North by David John, who researched the
subject exhaustively, interviewing the few defectors who’ve made it out alive, even
traveling there to see what he could for himself. Kim is anything but “a nice
young man.” John’s portrait of that bizarre, oppressive, isolated nation, its ruthless
dictator, and the threat posed to world order is chilling.
John McCain
was a decorated Navy A-4 Skyhawk pilot and hero (Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Silver
Star). Shot down during a flight over North Vietnam and severely injured during
ejection, as a POW he endured five years of deprivation, brutal beatings, and
continual torture. Despite his horrific ordeal, during which he nearly died
several times, he went on to become a respected Republican U.S. Senator from
Arizona until his death. When asked by a reporter about John McCain, Trump said,
“I prefer people who didn’t get caught.” Trump also publicly mocked a disabled NY
Times reporter in a speech, mimicking that person’s involuntary muscle
movements.
Under Trump’s
personal direction, boxes containing hundreds of secret and top-secret
documents were intentionally and illegally removed from the White House and
taken to his Mar-a-Lago members’ club/Trump residence, where they were put in
storage in a bathroom and elsewhere. These documents included classified
defense plans, nuclear secrets, and secret intelligence reports from America’s
allies. He is known to have shared some of these documents with friends who had
no security clearances. It is not known who else may have seen any of the unsecured
documents, or what Trump’s motives were in taking them. He refused to turn over
the documents to the secure National Archives where they legally belonged, and
finally the FBI raided the club and seized them. Trump claimed he’d had the
power to declassify any document “just by thinking about it.” As I write this, he’s
currently under indictment in Florida on 37 felony counts of violating the
Espionage Act.
Prior to the
2020 election in a phone call to Ukraine President Zelensky Trump asked the man to “look into” former Vice President
Joe Biden and his son Hunter for any dirt that Trump could use. Implied was the
withholding of aid if Zelensky would not. Republicans have since used Hunter’s admitted
indiscretions to attack the whole Biden administration, even though Hunter has
no role in it. We may recall that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and paid close
personal advisor during the Trump administration, secured a two-billion-dollar
deal with the Saudis for his investment firm to manage. What will Kushner’s ongoing
fees be from that?
Trump was recently found guilty of fraud in his New York dealings over
many years, fined $355 million plus interest to be paid to the state of New
York, and was banned from doing business in the state for three years. Two of Trump’s
sons, Donald Junior and Eric, were found complicit in the fraud, each fined $4
million, and banned from doing business in the state for two years.
For years, Trump refused to release his tax returns. Why? Every other
president, including Reagan, Obama, Clinton, the Bushes, and Joe Biden have
done this willingly and promptly for all to see. When Trump’s most recent returns
were finally leaked, the reason he’d so closely guarded them became clear. For
three out of five years, he paid nothing at all. For two of those five years he
paid exactly $750 each. Trump’s business career has been littered with massive
failures, nonpayment to creditors, and outright fraud. In 2018 in California, for
just one more example, a federal appeals court upheld a prior agreement to pay $25
million to settle lawsuits accusing fraud associated with his by-then-defunct
Trump University.
Trump has said, “Immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country.”
Hitler said the same about Jews poisoning the blood of Nazi Germany. Hitler
also promised to Make Germany Great Again. The truth is the entire North and
South American Continents and Central America as we know them have been founded
entirely by immigrants. The only original and true occupiers were the native
Indian tribes, the Mayans, and the Aztecs. Every single other living person in
the Western Hemisphere is either an immigrant or a descendent of immigrants. The
inscription on the Statue of Liberty says, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe
free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless,
tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Should we tear
down that statue?
The truth is immigrants have made our nation
great. Einstein, one of the finest geniuses who ever lived, was an immigrant. Millions
of other immigrants have contributed to our industry and culture over the
decades. Many of our cities are named for the places they came from: NEW York,
NEW Jersey, NEW Orleans, NEW Haven, NEW Bern, where I live. There are Chinatowns
in New York and San Francisco. There’s a Korea Town in New York. There are
French settlers in Louisiana. There are hard-working, tax-paying Italians, Irish,
Russians, Latinos, Germans, Greeks, Scandinavians, and many other nationalities
responsibly contributing to our culture and our world leadership role all
across America.
Immigrants should, of course, be vetted
before they’re allowed legal status. When Joe Biden proposed a recent long
overdue and comprehensive bill on immigration reform, which gave the
Republicans a large part of what they’d wanted, Trump fought it and his
congressional supporters dutifully killed it because he wanted to run on that
issue himself, condemning Biden and Democrats for not taking action.
Trump said, “With the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I
can be more presidential than any president that’s ever held this office.”
Really? Does this include Washington, Jefferson, the Roosevelts, Eisenhower, Kennedy,
Reagan, and all those other presidents from both parties who worked so
tirelessly to improve, promote, and defend our democracy?
The hard facts are: Donald Trump has proven to be criminally incompetent
in business and leadership, morally corrupt, incapable of common empathy, a
supreme narcissist, an inveterate liar, and a real danger to our American
democracy.
Each of us must decide whether we want to grant this man the great
powers and prestige of the White House once again. You know what my vote will
be.
Please give some good old American common-sense thought to your vote.
Phil
