CANDIDATE: Donald J. Trump
PARTY AFFILIATION: Republican
DOB: June 14, 1946
OCCUPATION: Billionaire businessman, Reality TV Star
POLITICAL HISTORY: None
In politics, records count for more than campaign promises. Donald Trump, like all candidates, is working to shape a favorable public image of himself. It is essential that the voters look beyond the bumper sticker slogans and take a look at where the candidate has actually stood on serious issues affecting liberty.
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ON VIOLATING PROPERTY RIGHTS
Among the most egregious Supreme Court decisions of this generation was Kelo v. City of New London, a case in which the court decided that it was “constitutional” for the government to confiscate private property using eminent domain power and then hand it over to well-connected private entities for private use. The practice constitutes nothing more than outright theft. Mr. Trump voiced approval, saying, “I happen to agree with it 100 percent” in an interview with Neil Cavuto [Fox News, 19 July 2005]. The billionaire later went to be the beneficiary of the government using that power against property owners. Most egregiously, Trump tried to evict an elderly widow to expand an Atlantic City casino [Source: Club For Growth].
ON CRUSHING THE FREE MARKET
Trump’s record on economics has been alarmingly statist. He has expressed eagerness to use the government to prop up corporations and crush individual economic rights. In 2008, he advocated bailouts for the too-big-to-fail corporations. Regarding the “Big Three” auto companies, Trump promoted a federal bailout, saying to Neil Kavuto, “I think the government should stand behind them 100 percent… You cannot lose the auto companies” [Source: Fox News, 17 Dec. 2008]. Similarly, he gave support to the TARP bailout, saying to CNN’s Kiran Chetry, “I think it would be better if it passed” [Source: CNN, 30 Sep. 2008]. He also clamored for a government takeover of healthcare in the 1990s, describing himself as“very liberal when it comes to health care,” and writing “We must have universal health care” [Source: The America We Deserve]. All of these positions represent a rejection of the free market and a propensity for confiscating wealth and placing it in the hands of corporate elites and government bureaucrats.
ON GUN PROHIBITION
Recently, Mr. Trump has been buttering up constituents by telling them he supports gun ownership and gun rights. But his record tells another story. Trump has spent decades funding anti-gun politicians (see below) and has been vocal about his own eagerness for government restrictions and gun prohibition. In his book, Trump wrote, “I support the ban on assault weapons and I support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun” [Source: The America We Deserve, p. 102]. When confronted about these comments, Trump eluded and never actually admitted that he was wrong or that he had changed his mind since the book was written [Source: AmmoLand].
ON SUPPORTING THE ESTABLISHMENT
Mr. Trump has a long history of donating to big-government candidates and helping the worst of the Washington establishment stay in power. It would be enough of a red flag if his support were limited to his own party (Republican), but Trump has also spent a fortune — over $500,000 — propping up establishment Democrats.
Trump’s beneficiaries over the past twenty years has included a number of high-powered, liberty-stomping U.S. Senators, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD), Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Congressional recipients included House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) and Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY). Trump also backed former Pennsylvania governor Edward G. Rendell (D), Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D), generously backed Karl Rove’s SuperPAC American Crossroads, and provided over $100,000 to the Bill and Hillary Clinton Foundation. [Sources: CNN, The Hill, Wapo]
Trump has recently been busy spouting rhetoric to distance himself from Democrats — and especially his opponent, Hillary Clinton — but words only count for so much. His decades-long support of big-government politics tells a more accurate story than his campaign speeches ever could.
ON EXECUTING WHISTLEBLOWERS
When it comes to dealing with Edward Snowden, the NSA contractor who risked his freedom to expose the agency’s elaborate domestic spying program, Mr. Trump espoused the harshest words yet. “I think Snowden is a terrible threat, I think he’s a terrible traitor, and you know what we used to do in the good old days when we were a strong country — you know what we used to do to traitors, right?” Trump said to Eric Bolling on “Fox & Friends.” Bolling provided the answer: “Well, you killed them, Donald” [Source: Politico].
You would have to be a blithering idiot to vote for this corporate, statist phony.
Admin- Doth protest too much. While I don’t agree with Trump I at least realize a major political shift is coming.
Stephanie
Don’t like facts?
Now you don’t agree with him. That isn’t what you said on the other thread.
I also said I enjoy having Trump in the race. I find him entertaining and amusing.
The political shift is not going to occur in the voting booth. It is going to occur when the financial system implodes and the lies of those in power are revealed. The change will happen at the point of guns.
Trump may help things along by helping build the anger, but he is still an idiot.
I’ll vote for Hitlery if it’ll crack the Repuke dog and pony show..
I never said I agreed with him but I said I supported him. Mostly because of his “honey badger don’t give a shit” stances. He will burn down the barn to get rid of a few rats in the political race. Time to break out the marshmallows and watch it implode. Voters will vote for him just to get rid of the GOP establishment along with the decades elected RINOs. I also love how many people have come out to denounce Trump despite sucking up to him with their pockets turned out in the past (Neil Young).
Trump won’t burn anything down. He’s a businessman with real estate holdings across the country. It isn’t good for business to make enemies in the establishment. He’s part of the establishment. He is generating publicity for himself. He has no real desire to be president. The money men on Wall Street will select the candidates. The GOP and Dems will continue along the same path until financial collapse sinks their boats.
Voters are brain dead zombies who will do what they are told to do.
OK, I give up. Trump is a total asshole, a fake who is in the race just for his own ego. Great. I will be relieved when Lindsey Graham is the compromise Republican candidate and Hillary moves into the White House. I sure as hell hope this financial meltdown comes soon. Like Admin, I do not believe in voting. I have believed for a long time that only outright civil war followed by a cleansing of this country that would make General Franco look like a piker will put this country to rights. We may not have long to wait. Well, off to take my KKK robes to the cleaners, burn down a synagogue and be rude to a Negro.
And did you know Trump got five (count ’em 5!) draft deferments during Vietnam? (Just like that toast of the GOP, Dick Cheney)
I’m voting for Bernie. At least he’s proven to be a trustworthy public servant. Matt Taiibi says Sanders (paraphrasing) “is a guy who lays awake at night trying to find a way to help poor people who can’t affrod fuel oil to keep from freezing during Winter”. He gets that he’s a public servant and he’s open to ideas that SOLVE PROBLEMS!
Jim, lindsay graham is in it to win it. I changed my mind. He was giving a speech in a truck stop bathroom and I saw it on youtube. He wants to blow snowden, eliminate the border patrol, knight the banksters, privatize the DOD procurement system, and jello wrassle marco rubio and rand paul AT THE SAMETIME. happy?
Admin is still living in his anarchists fantasy land with dreams of somehow it will all end in a libertarian utopian society. And you guys call me an idiot.Trump is the only one brave enough to stand up to these treasonous son of bitches especially on immigration. Third world immigration is the biggest security threat this nation faces.
As far as kkk is concerned they are now inviting black and Jews to join.So no more slandering the kkk.
Southern , don’t give up .I never gave up on these knuckleheads. I never will give up on Stucky or Westcoast.
If I was a gambling man I’d put my money on Scott Walker as the GOP candidate.
Westcoast , you are an insane if you think Sanders has any real solutions to the problems this nation faces.He is a socialist. Their solutions have never worked anywhere in the known universe. What makes you think they will now?
BB, hush with the trump stuff, so yesterday. LINZEEEEEE!!!!! walker’s got a shot, until he has to toe the company line. Gonna look pretty stupid when he does. Look how it’s working for jeb! and rubio.
Administrator says:
If I was a gambling man I’d put my money on Scott Walker as the GOP candidate.
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Jeb! Jeb! Jeb! Trump is doing his best to make jeb look presidential.
Trump Says He Heroically Avoided Capture in Vietnam by Staying in U.S.
By Andy Borowitz
AMES, IOWA (The Borowitz Report)—Presidential candidate Donald Trump revealed a little-known episode of personal heroism from his youth on Saturday, telling an Iowa audience that he narrowly avoided capture in Vietnam by remaining in the United States for the duration of the war.
“The Cong were after me,” Trump said, visibly stirred by the memory. “And then, just in the nick of time, I got my deferment.”
The former reality-show star said he had never shared his record as a war hero before because “I don’t like to boast.”
He said that he only disclosed the episode now because “the way this nation treats our deferment veterans is a disgrace.”
Trump complained that he received no official commendation or medal for his heroism, calling the lack of recognition “shameful.”
“Those brave Americans who, like me, avoided being captured by not serving at all—we are the true heroes,” he said.
Trump’s tale of valor appeared to move many members of his audience, some of whom waited in line after his speech to thank him for his lack of service.
From the linked article below on ZH”
Those of you who are “Trumped-up” will love this one:
“The ideology is a 21st century version of right fascism — one of the most politically successful ideological strains of 20th century politics. Though hardly anyone talks about it today, we really should. It is still real. It exists. It is distinct. It is not going away. Trump has tapped into it, absorbing unto his own political ambitions every conceivable bourgeois resentment: race, class, sex, religion, economic. You would have to be hopelessly ignorant of modern history not to see the outlines and where they end up.
For now, Trump seems more like comedy than reality.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-18/trumpism-ideology
Trump really needs to watch his mouth, but regarding McCain, there are some really dark things he needs to explain. His Dad, Admiral McCain, was the guy who covered up the U.S.S. Liberty attack for LBJ. Dear old Dad also got sonny boy into flight school even though he was damn near last in his class (normally naval aviators are at or near the top of their Annapolis class). Then there is the Forrestal incident, never totally cleared up. Worst accident in U.S. Navy history. Damn near sank one of our own carriers. Some say McCain was engaging in horseplay that led to this disaster. Yes, he served, but there remain grave questions about his conduct while a prisoner – the recordings he made for the North Vietnamese are still classified, largely at his urging. Some say his injuries came not from torture but from the ejection from his plane and that he was relatively well-treated as the son of the commander of the Pacific Fleet (makes sense; did they want Dad bombing the shit out of them even more?) Then there is his inexcusable treatment of the families of MIA’s. He snarled at them and had all of the intelligence indicating that we left men behind classified. There is speculation that some of the guys who never came home (but who were known to be alive in North Vietnamese hands) knew the truth about his actions as a prisoner. He dumped his loyal wife who stood by him while he was a prisoner, after she was disfigured in an automobile accident. He married the daughter of a Las Vegas hoodlum who took the fall for some Mafia guys and did five years in a Federal slammer; they rewarded him with an Arizona beer distributorship. Now McCain is a multi-millionaire. Oh, yes. He was one of the famous Keating Five. Remember them? Sure Trump should not have said such a thing in public about McCain, but I will shed no tears for that obnoxious old lunatic. Full disclosure. I held my nose and voted for him, but that was before Admin opened by eyes re voting.
My opinion is that McCain should be extradited to Vietnam to complete his sentence.
last two posts are genius
I tender many thanks to the Chief Administrator for this new information to me concerning Mr. Trump. This further inflames and supports my innate Kentucky views of the New York Yankee politician types- They are always truly low-life bastard statist scum never to be believed or trusted.
Coalclinker- Welcome!
The rebel camp can always use another voice against the those Yankee varmints.
Bea, they know each other and their peculiar rackets well. The Donald said he understood Al Sharpton’s racket. Lots of rats up there.
I don’t recall if Clammy ever responded, are we to assimilate to that Yankee culture?