On June 16, 2015, Donald J. Trump
descended the escalator of Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for President
of the United States. It was the latest
attempt by this flamboyant flop of a con artist to make a name for himself. Like nearly everything he touches, it became
a mixed bag of success and failure. That
single event proved to be far more symbolic than anyone ever could imagine, for
when The Donald descended, he took the United States of America down with him.
Love him or hate him, one has to
admit Donald Trump does things in a big way.
Its about the only thing that is consistent with him. He loves a show! And he will do anything to grab the
attention.
In his dramatic style Trump touted
his outstanding success in the business world as the clue to do what no one
else could do – namely “Drain the swamp”!
Trump loves to position himself as the unique outsider who can change Washington
politics by incorporating his business model into government. In those early days he claimed that
government was nothing more than a very big business and it would take a great businessman
like him to straighten it out. Among his
criticisms of the Federal government was the deficit spending, national debt,
and endless wars. As the campaign unfolded,
he singled out the problem of immigration as his signature issue, blaming
illegal immigrants for virtually all our nation’s ills, including violence, disease,
economic distress, social tensions, and expensive entitlements.
This raises an obvious question of
just how successful Donald Trump has been as a businessman. To begin with let’s look at his record with
regard to bankruptcy. While it is true
the The Donald has not personally filed for bankruptcy, seven of his business
ventures have, according to Snopes. They
are:
1.
Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic City, NJ (1991)
2.
Trump Castle Casino, Atlantic City, NJ (1992)
3.
Trump Plaza Casino, Atlantic City, NJ (1992)
4.
Trump Plaza Hotel, New York City, NY (1992)
5.
Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts (2004), a
restructure and consolidation of his 3 Atlantic City Casinos and several other
properties.
6.
Trump Entertainment Resorts (2009), another
restructuring of the same business that went bankrupt in 2004. New name, same company, same results.
In the four bankruptcies in 1991 and 1992 Trump was forced to surrender half of the businesses in order to stay afloat. In 2004 his ownership was reduced from 47% to 27 %. His 2009 bankruptcy resulted in a difficult fight with his Board of Directors. In the end Trump was forced to resign as Chairman of the Board and reduced his ownership share to a mere 10%. I wonder what the other Board members knew about Donald J. Trump that the rest of us do not.
In 2011 Trump Entertainment Resorts
filed for bankruptcy yet again. This
time he was forced to close the Trump Plaza Casino for good and surrender the
Taj Mahal to become a subsidiary of another company.
In addition to these failures Trump
launched 13 other business ventures that likewise failed. The list is long and unimpressive, including
Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka and Trump University, just to name a few. Trump University was especially embarrassing,
facing a $40 million lawsuit after being revealed as a fraud and forced to
close. And then there was the Trump
Foundation. It was discovered that Trump
was using the Foundation as his personal checkbook in violation of State
laws. Not only was it shut down by the
State of New York, but The Donald himself has major restrictions placed on him in
the event he should ever serve on another charity board.
When you look closely at the facts
it is not hard to see that Donald Trump is not, and never has been, a
particularly good businessman. Perhaps
he made more money for himself than I ever will, but in the aftermath, he left
a horrible heap of rubbish in the form of destroyed businesses.
This is the legacy that Donald
Trump brought with him to Washington. No
one benefits but Donald himself.
Consider his campaign promises.
He promised he would build the wall along our Southern border to keep
out all those wretched, evil immigrants.
Of course, it doesn’t stop there.
Not only will he build the greatest, most secure wall ever, but it will
not cost the American taxpayer a thing.
Mexico will pay for it! The only
thing funnier than this con is the fact that the American people bought it. Not everyone, mind you. Not even most Americans. But enough properly placed voters to give
Trump the Electoral College win he needed to overcome his popular vote loss. Just another shell game.
Then there is the Tax Cuts and Jobs
Act of 2017. In Typical Trump style, it
looks good; it sounds good; and for the
largest corporations and 1% of the richest Americans it was good. Really good.
But for most Americans – in fact, nearly all Americans – there was no
advantage. One thing it did do is
increase the deficit. For Fiscal Year
2019 the Federal deficit was $1.10 trillion, up 17% from the previous
year. It doesn’t take an accounting
degree to understand that increased spending coupled with less income results
in a losing proposition. Talking about degrees, Trump did manage to
graduate from the Wharton School of business at the University of Pennsylvania,
but not with any kind of master’s degree.
He possesses a bachelor’s degree in Finance, according to Quora. There is no indication of what his GPA was,
but he clearly did not earn honors. This
only shows that Donald Trump is certainly not a financial genius.
Another campaign promise by Trump
was his commitment to “drain the swamp”.
That was his way of saying he would root out the corruption and gridlock
in Washington. Because he was a self-proclaimed “stable genius” and the master
of The Art Of The Deal he alone could make government work. Instead, the swamp is swampier than
ever. To date 34 associates of Trump
have been indicted on criminal charges, seven of which have pleaded guilty. The rest are awaiting trial. Just let that sink in for a moment. 34 people close to the President of the United
States, most involved in one way or another in his campaign, have been charged
as criminals. I don’t recall any other
administration with that kind of blemish.
Most swamps swallow things up and
bring activities to an end. Trump’s
divisive nature has brought things to a standstill in Congress. He may have derided Congressional deadlock
prior to becoming President, but since he has taken office this swamp devours
bills and has exasperated the partisan divide to historic lengths. I do not have exact figures but the House of
Representatives has sent several hundred bills and resolutions to the Senate
only to see them die. We are talking
about some 340-400 pieces of legislation just in the past year and a half. Moscow Mitch McConnell, in lockstep obedience
to Donald Trump, has personally and unilaterally chosen to see to it that they
would go nowhere. And they haven’t. Trump likes to label the Democrats “the
do-nothing Democrats”. In reality, however,
it is the Senate Republicans who have done nothing. Nothing, that is, but
destroy American democracy. Rather than
serving the will of the people these guys have committed themselves to only
serving themselves. It starts with
Donald Trump. But it has filtered
throughout the GOP to include McConnell, Lindsey Graham, John Kennedy, John
Thune, John Barrasso, Roy Blunt, Tom Cotton, John Cornyn, Rand Paul - - the
list is long and doesn’t stop here.
Donald Trump’s only success, if you
can call it that, was discovered in “Reality Television”. His show, The Apprentice, gave Trump a
very public platform. For 14 seasons he
was the host and central player. I can’t
really comment much on it because I never watched a single episode. I have this thing against Reality TV. To me it is anything but real. It is only a cheap excuse to produce a
money-making show with as little work as possible coupled with unprofessional
and untrained “actors”. It is a
distortion; fake; a rip-off - - just like Donald Trump himself. In my opinion Reality TV is a misnomer. It should be called “Unreality TV”.
Trump is as fake as it gets. His list of deceptions cannot possibly be
listed in their entirety. From the “birther
movement” lies to climate change denial to the Russian propaganda that falsely
claims Ukraine hacked the DNC server and attempted to interfere with the 2016
election in the United States rather than Russia, this imposter has told well
over 15,000 lies since becoming President, according to such resources as The
Washington Post and Politifact. The man
cannot be trusted at all. How many times
have lawmakers thought they worked out an agreement with Trump on some issue
only to see him change his mind and reverse course later? I do not know the answer to that question, but
I can tell you it has been far too often.
DACA, infrastructure, the budget and so much more. Trump loves to call anything he disagrees
with “Fake News” or “Alternative Facts”.
In truth, however, he and his minions are the ones pushing the lies.
This is far more than Donald
Trump. This is a man who has
single-handedly stolen the Republican Party, its leaders and defenders, its
rank-and-file members, the United States Senate and American democracy in
general. He has perverted virtually
everything the United States once stood for.
His slogan, “Make America Great Again” is perhaps the greatest
scam in history, for Donald J. Trump has done nothing but bring out the very worst
of American society. Our Allies no
longer trust us. Our political landscape
has been destroyed . Our security is
severely threatened, including the integrity of our national elections. Democracy has been replaced with an
autocratic plutocracy. The Statue of
Liberty – once the proud symbol of liberty, justice and refuge – might just as
well be dismantled and beaten into swords.
Racism and hate groups are experiencing a renaissance. The American economy is on the threshold of
bankruptcy and destruction with unmanageable debt and an unstable market. Even our spirituality has been transformed
into something unrecognizable. The
Evangelical Christian community no longer exists. It once stood for moral integrity and “black-and-white
Truth”. Now, it too is a symbol of
contradictions and hypocrisy.
The United States of America has
been replaced by an imposter mirage led by the ultimate UN-Reality Star, Donald
John Trump, whose fall is undeniably eminent.
The only question that remains is this:
Will this con man permanently destroy this country along with himself? The answer lies deep within each one of us.
G. D. Gehr
February 4, 2020
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