The evidence is building that at best, Trump is a charming con man who has hit upon the ultimate con: getting himself elected as the leader of the free world (with his finger on the nuclear trigger).
I’ve been watching the unfolding scandal around “Trump University”, whose very name is itself a scam. Calling an educational program a “university” without going through an accreditation process is like calling yourself a medical doctor without going to medical school. It is illegal. As the Attorney General of New York puts it “It’s fraud. This is straight up fraud.”
And Trump knows it is fraud because he has tried to reach an out-of-court settlement in the case, despite the fact that he has loudly proclaimed that he “never settles” cases. More lies.
Trump has now doubled down by fighting allegations of fraud with more fraud. The Trump campaign released a video “The Truth About Trump University” featuring three former students saying they benefited greatly from their courses there. Trump has claimed that 98% of the people who attended liked the school. However, the three students featured in the video are all beholden to Trump through business and personal connections, and none of them are actually in the real estate business, which was the subject matter of Trump University. One of the three even claims in the video that “because of Trump University I ultimately enrolled in 2007 in the Wharton Business School.” Sounds great, but it turns out that he was never enrolled as a student there, he just attended a two-week seminar held by the school. This same guy has often described himself as an alumnus of the prestigious business school. I wonder where he learned to misrepresent himself and lie like this?
But what I’m really curious about is, will any of this make Trump supporters realize that they are being conned?
Trump claims to be an expert deal-maker who will make America great again by negotiating better deals for us. But many of his “deals” have been transparent frauds that only seem to have benefitted Trump himself. Are world leaders really so stupid and gullible that they will fall for that?
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Trump supporters, his core supporters anyway (think: that guy sucker-punching a protester) are beyond hope. They truly think that Trump has some sort of wink/nod agreement with them where all his backpedaling and doublespeak is a smokescreen for other people while he really is on their side.
On the other hand you have the cowards/outclassed con men like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell who are too afraid of the idiot fringe of their party to stand with the (I can’t believe I’m saying this) slightly more courageous Mitt Romney, admit that their primary rules are broken and run a Pyrrhic third candidate to at least avoid standing with a racist blowhard. I think these folks are worse.
In any case, we could see something really interesting with Trump set to take the stand in a fraud trial within weeks of the election this November.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2016/05/06/judge-to-consider-timing-of-trump-university-trial/
It isn’t world leaders who are choosing our next president.
Of course not, but some Americans are choosing a president based on promises that he would make great deals with foreign leaders, that he would be able to tame ISIS, get a better deal with China, and get Mexico to pay for an expensive wall between our countries.
IK,
Let’s assume that everything you write is valid. It’s all besides the point. The nearly half of the population that supports Trump don’t want to hire him as a Sunday School teacher. Or even as a university president.
Rather, they want a human pit bull. They’re perfectly fine with a lying, narcissistic, SOB, as long as that guy uses those “talents” to dismantle what they view as the corrupt political system now in place.
Hillary, OTOH, is viewed as part of the system. That’s your real problem.
However, given Trump’s penchant for gratuitously insulting whole classes of voters, I’m still betting on Hillary to win–absent an indictment in the email case, a major economic downturn, or some terrorist act committed by, say, a Syrian refugee.
Trump supporters are being conned just like Hillary. Of course Trump supporters cant seem to understand that, just like Hillary supporters.
Hassan, well at least you are answering my question about realizing they are being conned.
Carter, the con is whether Trump will use his “talents” for them, rather than just take advantage of them like other politicians. The latter is more likely.
IK,
“whether Trump will use his “talents” for them, rather than just take advantage of them like other politicians. ”
You put it exactly right. If Trump wins, that WILL be the question.
If I read the mood of many of his supporters correctly, they are responding , in effect, that they will take their chances with a candidate who is a “maybe,” rather than with one who is a “definitely no.”
Carter, I think you hit it precisely. People are tired of the establishment, so they are willing to go with anyone who even appears to be an “outsider”. That includes both people like Trump, who have absolutely no political experience, and even includes Sanders, who only became a Democrat a few minutes before running for the nomination. Most people had hardly heard about Sanders before this election, and there was a survey that showed that many of his ardent supporters don’t even really agree with his proposed policies. They just want something new.
Assuming one or the other (or both! And then what?) don’t end up in court before November, an old adage may come into play – “Better the devil you know than the one you don’t.”
It’s no way to run a railroad, to use another adage, but looks like the only ticket for sale from this station.
We all hate sleazy lawyers…
…unless they work for us.
That, I think, would be the excuse for Trump supporters. “Sure, he’s a slime-ball, but he’s our slime-ball!”
Ralph, remember that Obama’s popularity is surging right now. So that is also in play. Ironically, probably in some of the same people.
Peter, again, the con is whether or not he is actually their slime ball. He has proven over and over again that he is not.
IK said, “Trump claims to be an expert deal-maker who will make America great again by negotiating better deals for us. But many of his “deals” have been transparent frauds that only seem to have benefitted Trump himself. Are world leaders really so stupid and gullible that they will fall for that?”
Of course not, IK. The question is, is an electoral majority (see how carefully I conditioned that?) of American voters really so stupid and gullible that they will fall for Trump’s promises?
And that is the $64,000,000,000,000 (64 trillion dollar) question. Carefully conditioned or not.
I read today that 97% of racist whites will vote for trump. I am sure there are a lot of closet racist whites. That is the biggest determining factor. Not the economy, etc. Those that realize the minority is soon to become the majority and are turning to white supremacy hopefully to late.
The funny thing is that Republicans love to attack the character of the Clintons (sometimes with justification, sometimes not). But they are saints compared with Trump.
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