Political Irony

The more Trump’s campaign evolves, the more it stays the same.

© Kevin Siers

It didn’t take long after reorganizing his campaign and even sorta kinda apologizing for the stupid and hateful things he has said, that Trump put his foot firmly in his mouth again. “With one arrogant boast, Donald Trump stumbled into a perfect Hillary Clinton trap.” He boasted that if elected he would win 95% of the African-American vote in 2020, and asked blacks “What do you have to lose? You’re living in poverty. Your schools are no good. You have no jobs.”

There are two problems with this boast. First, most African-Americans (not counting those who are in school or are retired) have jobs and are not living in poverty. But I guess Trump would not be aware of that. So while trying to appeal to blacks, Trump instead insulted them.

Even worse, there is plenty for blacks to lose, and by asking the question he gave Hillary Clinton’s campaign an opening to discuss the answer. They responded:

Donald Trump asks what the African American community has to lose by voting for him. The answer is everything, from a man who questions the citizenship of the first African American President, courts white supremacists, and has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of color. Trump painting the entire community as living in poverty with no jobs continues to show he is completely out of touch with the African-American community.

Donald Trump has a long and well-documented history of practicing discrimination and racism. Expect this to be pointed out repeatedly now.

On Monday, Trump again fell back on his old standby of spewing hatred at immigrants, and called for “extreme vetting” of foreigners before they are admitted to the US. “Those who do not believe in our Constitution, or support bigotry and hatred, will not be admitted for immigration into our country. Only those who expect to flourish in our country and to embrace a tolerant American society should be issued visas.”

Of course, pretty much everything Trump said he would do is already being done to vet immigrants, which is why it takes up to two years to gain entry to this country.

In fact, according to Perry Rivkind, a Reagan appointee who was an associate commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and an INS district director, neither Trump nor his current wife could pass the stringent requirements to immigrate into this country.

Of course, Donald Trump is already an American citizen, so he wouldn’t need to immigrate here. But according to Rivkind, if Trump applied for a job with the US government, he would not have made it through the background checks and security clearance requirements for the job:

He would be rejected because of his statements. He’d never be accepted into any other position. I’m not sure he could get an appointment because he couldn’t pass a security check. He could not get into a U.S. government job based on his statements on Russia, his attacks on people. He couldn’t get any clearance. He couldn’t have access to classified material.

Rivkind’s duties included vetting job candidates at the Justice Department, and he says he turned people down for character flaws far less serious than Trump’s.

Rivkind also questions how Melania was able to obtain a work visa, especially since she only had a fledgling modeling career and had posed for nude photographs:

The vetting system for immigrants is so strict that the sexy photographs of Melania holding a gun, wearing a mask and posing in “sadomasochistic” poses should’ve been cause to put a review hold on her permanent status.

And then there is the question of her supposed college degree. If she has listed that on her immigration applications, it would have been grounds to revoke her immigration application and deny her residency.

The bottom line is that Trump says he wants “extreme vetting” of immigrants, but his wife is an example of someone who should not have been able to gain residency here. Maybe what we really need is “extreme vetting” of presidential candidates.

© Ruben Bolling

Criminal prosecutors in the Ukraine investigating corruption have found the name of Paul Manafort, the man running Trump’s campaign, 22 times (for a total of $12.7 million) on a secret ledger of people who were given large amounts of cash as bribes and paybacks.

This blog has mentioned previously that Manafort worked for Viktor Yanukovych, the leader of the Ukrainian pro-Russian political party who fled to Russia after he was deposed. Manafort also worked with Oleg Deripaska “a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin“.

In response, Manafort attacked the NY Times, but did not deny his connections to Russia.

Trump’s ex-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who was pushed out by Manafort, tweeted a link to this story moments after it broke. Lewandowski still advises Trump personally and often speaks on the phone with him.

One thing is clear — in a normal election Manafort would never have been hired to run a presidential campaign. As a Fox News contributor put it “The fact that Trump has started receiving security briefings and that Manafort may have access to them is not a joke.”

A Republican strategist tweeted “If Manafort truly cares about Trump, he resigns by 8am tomorrow.” But a speechwriter for former president George W. Bush replied “Assuming it is Trump to whom Manafort ultimately answers. But that’s a question now, isn’t it?”

The former director of the Richard Nixon presidential library (and distinguished historian at NYU) asks “How demonstrably Putanist does Manafort have to be for the RNC to insist Trump dump him?”

Amazing how far the Republican Party has come, from celebrating Ronald Reagan for standing up to Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev, to nominating Donald Trump, who kisses Putin’s ass.

It is undeniable that Trump has become cozy with Putin since hiring Manafort. Just last Thursday, Trump told CNBC (in the third person) “During his administration, Trump will be friendly with Putin”. Trump made excuses for Russia’s occupation of Crimea (formerly a part of the Ukraine) and even weakened language in the Republican plaform that called for military support for the Ukraine. Trump also suggested that as president he would not defend NATO allies if they were invaded by Russia. Trump has hired blatantly pro-Putin advisors. And there is growing evidence that Putin is trying to sway the outcome of the US election, as he has done in European elections.

As former CIA director Michael Morell flatly stated:

Putin was a career intelligence officer, trained to identify vulnerabilities in an individual and to exploit them. That is exactly what he did early in the primaries. Mr. Putin played upon Mr. Trump’s vulnerabilities by complimenting him. He responded just as Mr. Putin had calculated.

Mr. Putin is a great leader, Mr. Trump says, ignoring that he has killed and jailed journalists and political opponents, has invaded two of his neighbors and is driving his economy to ruin. Mr. Trump has also taken policy positions consistent with Russian, not American, interests — endorsing Russian espionage against the United States, supporting Russia’s annexation of Crimea and giving a green light to a possible Russian invasion of the Baltic States.

In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.

And of course, because Trump has not released any of his tax returns, we have no idea of how much money Trump has taken from the Russians, either personally or as investments in his projects.

© Mike Luckovich