The Donald Trump Score Card

Trump was up in the middle of the night complaining about a toppled Confederate statue, but he did nothing for hours in the afternoon when his 3,000 rioters were attacking police and members of Congress at the Capitol.

 

Trump re-election bribery scandal results in criminal referral for former cabinet secretary

excerpt:

"Leaders on the House National Resources Committee on Wednesday official referred former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to the U.S. Department of Justice for criminal prosecution.

The criminal referral was sent by the committee's chairman, Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ), and the chairwoman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA).

In 2017, Bernhardt was the number two official at the Interior Department under then-Secretary Ryan Zinke. The department reversed itself on a 28,000-home development in southern Arizona known as the Villages at Vigneto that was pushed by developer Michael Ingram.

"In their referral, Democrats say Ingram met with Bernhardt in August 2017, two weeks before a Fish and Wildlife official received the phone call directing him to reverse the decision blocking the project. The meeting was not disclosed in Bernhardt’s public calendar or travel documents," the Associated Press reported."

 

Article from December 2021.


Far too little vote fraud to tip election to Trump, AP finds

excerpt:

"These are some of the culprits in the “massive election fraud” Trump falsely says deprived him of a second term:

A Wisconsin man who mistakenly thought he could vote while on parole.

A woman in Arizona suspected of sending in a ballot for her dead mother.

A Pennsylvania man who went twice to the polls, voting once on his own behalf and once for his son.

The cases were isolated. There was no widespread, coordinated deceit.

The cases also underscore that suspected fraud is both generally detected and exceptionally rare.

“Voter fraud is virtually non-existent,” said George Christenson, election clerk for Milwaukee County in Wisconsin, where five people statewide have been charged with fraud out of nearly 3.3 million ballots cast for president. “I would have to venture a guess that’s about the same odds as getting hit by lightning.”

Even in the state with the highest number of potential fraud cases — Arizona, with 198 — they comprised less than 2% of the margin by which Biden won."

 

Article from October 2016.


Donald Trump’s history of corruption: a comprehensive review

excerpt:

"Trump has used other people’s donations to his charity to benefit himself

Donald Trump has a charitable family foundation to which, in recent years, he has given hardly any money, instead raising the vast majority of its funds from others. That’s rather dishonest of him, since he constantly claims that the foundation’s donations are from his own pocketbook. But the more serious problem is that he’s then used several hundred thousand dollars of that foundation money in deeply questionable ways that may well have run afoul of laws against “self-dealing” with charity money.

For instance, in September, the Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold — the reporter who’s absolutely owned the Trump Foundation beat — reported that Trump used $258,000 of the foundation’s money to settle legal problems involving his for-profit businesses."

 

Three years later, Trump Foundation was order to pay $2 million and was dissolved.


Judge Says Trump Must Pay $2 Million Over Misuse Of Foundation Funds

 

Donald Trump’s history of corruption: a comprehensive review

excerpt:

"It’s a dubious claim, made even more dubious by his behavior in the matter of Trump University. This was the GOP nominee’s seminar business that purported to be able to teach its students secrets of real estate investing. Former students sued Trump, claiming they were bilked out of their money, and he’s set to face a trial for fraud in the matter shortly after the election. The New York attorney general’s office has also sued, claiming Trump University made deceptive claims."

 

About a year later, Trump settled the Trump University suit to avoid appearing in court during his first year in the White House.
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Trump contends he threatened Putin to not invade Ukraine.

He doesn't appear to have made any public statements about it before Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022. He did make a public remark that he thought Putin wouldn't invade Ukraine but not because of a supposed threat he made to him. It sounded more like he had faith in a good friend to not invade.

Trump made numerous disparaging remarks about NATO while praising Putin but now claims he made NATO great again.


Trump claims he ‘threatened’ Putin over Ukraine after praising Russian troop build-up

 

Two years after Trump said it was just one person coming in from China.


'Unthinkable tragedy': U.S. COVID-19 death toll surpasses 1 million

excerpt:

"What was once unthinkable — is now a reality.

One million Americans have now died from the coronavirus, according to an announcement made Thursday by President Joe Biden, marking a long-dreaded milestone for an incomprehensible tragedy.

"Today, we mark a tragic milestone: one million American lives lost to COVID-19. One million empty chairs around the dinner table. Each an irreplaceable loss. Each leaving behind a family, a community, and a nation forever changed because of this pandemic. Jill and I pray for each of them," Biden said in a statement. "As a nation, we must not grow numb to such sorrow. To heal, we must remember."

The president plans to order flags to half-staff in remembrance."

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/22/tru...m-china-we-have-it-totally-under-control.html

excerpt:

"We have it totally under control," Trump told "Squawk Box" co-host Joe Kernen in an interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "It's one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It's going to be just fine."

 

"with a hurricane gun..." ~ Donald J. Trump

 

Trump admired what he perceived as Putin's brinkmanship tactic of using a massive military buildup at the Ukraine border to try to obtain a deal for himself.

Trump didn't like it when Putin actually followed through with the threat and blamed it on Biden.

Trump has been immersed in the world of his brinkmanship tactics in real estate but is inept in real world governance.

 

Trump shouldn't have been praising someone considered to be an adversary of the U.S. for threatening a democracy, even if Putin hadn't invaded Ukraine. It shows Trump's love for strong arm tactics, even those of U.S. adversaries.

When asked what to do about the war in Ukraine, Trump is still saying vaguely that Putin should cut a deal for himself while still not condemning Putin for his unprovoked invasion.

 

Article from August 2018.


The Church of Trump

excerpt:

"Trumpism proposes a system of worship formed in direct opposition to bourgeois moral logic, with values that are anti-intellectual and anti–politically correct. If mainline Protestantism is a bastion of the educated, upper-middle class, the Church of Trump is a gathering place for its castoffs. Trump’s rhetoric about the “silent majority” is indeed a racial dog whistle, but it is also a call to his supporters to unmask themselves. He offers a public embrace of a worldview that has been, at least until this point, a mark of shame. There is belonging in this—but there is also relief.

That part of the Trump phenomenon remains mostly unnoticed, except by those who have witnessed it firsthand. Reporting from a rally in South Carolina in 2015, Molly Ball observed:

Despite all the negativity and fear, the energy in this room does not feel dark and aggressive and threatening. It doesn’t feel like a powder keg about to blow, a lynch mob about to rampage. It feels joyous.

“There is so much love in every room I go to,” Trump says, near the end of nearly an hour and a half of free-associative bombast, silly and sometimes offensive impressions, and insane pronouncements. “We want our country to be great again, and we know it can be done!”"

 

Even after the day of violence at his insurrection at the Capitol, Trump said he felt the love at the 'Save America' rally at the Ellipse.

He told his rioters that he loved them and that they were very special.

 

Yet Trump's supporters think that he will make them part of the financial bourgeois via an easy way without having to grapple with objective facts and practical reason.

 

And he really truly wanted to march with them to the Capitol.

 

If he had marched into the Capitol with them as his invited guests, I wonder what their disposition would be today?

My guess;

Trump would still be President and the rioters would make up his current cabinet, personal advisors, diplomatic corps, and white house staff.

 

Putin's brinkmanship tactics that he as used on Ukraine that Trump praised have caused countries in Europe to reconsider joining the EU and NATO that Trump disparaged during his administration and said were obsolete.


Finland's leaders announce support for joining NATO - CNN

excerpt:

"Finland’s president and prime minister announced their support for joining NATO on Thursday, moving the Nordic nation which shares an 800-mile border with Russia one step closer to membership of the US-led military alliance. The Kremlin has responded by saying the move would be a threat to Russia.

The statement of support for NATO from President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin had been expected, after the Finnish government recently submitted a report on national security to the country’s parliament which outlined the path to joining the alliance as one of Finland’s options.

In the joint statement, Niinisto and Marin said: “NATO membership would strengthen Finland’s security. As a member of NATO, Finland would strengthen the entire defence alliance. Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay. We hope that the national steps still needed to make this decision will be taken rapidly within the next few days.”

Later on Thursday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Finland joining the alliance would be a threat to Russia and would not contribute to more security."