"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters."
a “very stable genius,” with “a very good brain”) and a “very high IQ”
“my great and unmatched wisdom”
“the chosen one” and “so great looking and smart”
Donald J. Trump
Francis Fukuyama is best known for his book "The End of History and the Last Man," where he argues that liberal democracy and free-market capitalism are the final point of society's evolution. He noted 09 June 2023 "If Donald Trump makes a comeback in 2024, that solves all of Russia's problems because he's apparently committed to pulling the US out of NATO. Russia will have achieved its major objectives simply by this change in American politics."
Donald Trump was the first president since 1869 to have no pets. Donald Trump was the first president in the history of the USA to be impeached for inviting foreign influence into US elections, and the first to be impeached in his first elected term of office. The US House of Representatives late on 18 December 2019 impeached Donald Trump on two counts: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Trump denied wrongdoing and called the impeachment inquiry, launched by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in September, a "witch hunt". The president has called the impeachment proceeding a “witch hunt,” repeatedly asserting that his call with the Ukrainian president was "perfect."
Specifically, Trump was accused of a shakedown using taxpery dollars to pressure Ukraine to publicly announce an investigation into Joe Biden, a leading contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, as well as into a discredited theory peddled by Moscow that it was Ukraine rather than Russia that had subverted in the 2016 election. Trump held back $391 million (€351m) in security aid intended to combat Russian aggression and a coveted White House meeting for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as leverage to blackmail Kiev into interfering in the 2020 election by smearing Biden. Article Two accuses Trump of obstruction of Congress by directing administration officials and agencies not to comply with lawful House subpoenas for testimony and documents related to impeachment.
In late December, the U.S. House of Representatives voted nearly along party lines to impeach President Donald Trump on abuse of office and obstruction of Congress, making him only the third president in American history to face the threat of removal from office. The historic vote followed a months-long inquiry into allegations that Trump used the power of his office to solicit Ukrainian interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election and then obstructed Congressional efforts to investigate him.
The inquiry started in response to an intelligence community whistleblower complaint that Trump had halted military aid to Ukraine and then asked his Ukrainian counterpart during a July 25 phone call to investigate his likely Democratic opponent, former president Joe Biden, and a debunked theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 U.S. election to help Democrat Hillary Clinton against Trump. The intelligence community’s watchdog found the complaint “credible” and subsequent testimony by more than a dozen officials largely corroborated the allegations.
Trump was impeached on two charges in connection with the Ukraine pressure campaign: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The first charge stems from Trump’s alleged effort to “solicit” Ukrainian help with his reelection campaign in in 2020 while holding up military aid. The second charge was related to Trump’s subsequent effort to “stonewall” the Congressional inquiry by ordering his administration to defy subpoenas for documents and testimony.
The U.S. Senate acquitted President Donald Trump of two articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — concluding a nearly four-month effort by congressional Democrats to remove Trump from office. During a roll-call vote in the Senate chambers 05 February 2020 with Chief Justice John Roberts presiding, the senators found Trump not guilty of abuse of power by a vote of 52 to 48, and not guilty of obstruction of Congress 53 to 47. The vote to acquit Trump of both charges brought by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives was strictly along party lines. The sole Republican dissension was Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, who voted guilty on the abuse of power charge, but not guilty on obstructing Congress. The White House put out a statement saying Trump has been fully vindicated and exonerated. The statement called for "retribution" against House Democratic leaders for lying and what it says was a manufactured case against the president.
Trump was the carnival barker who introduced the phrase "grab ’em by the pussy" into the national lexicon. Trump was the 45th President of the United States. His campaign slogan was Make America Great Again. Ta-Nehisi Coates noted that "It is often said that Trump has no real ideology, which is not true — his ideology is white supremacy, in all its truculent and sanctimonious power. Trump inaugurated his campaign by casting himself as the defender of white maidenhood against Mexican “rapists,” only to be later alleged by multiple accusers, and by his own proud words, to be a sexual violator himself.
White supremacy has always had a perverse sexual tint. Trump’s rise was shepherded by Steve Bannon, a man who mocks his white male critics as “cucks.” The word, derived from cuckold, was specifically meant to debase by fear and fantasy—the target was so weak that he would submit to the humiliation of having his white wife lie with black men.... essential to the construct of a “white race” is the idea of not being a nigger... Trump arrived in the wake of ... an entire nigger presidency with nigger health care, nigger climate accords, and nigger justice reform..."
According to Edison Research, Trump won whites making less than $50,000 by 20 points, whites making $50,000 to $99,999 by 28 points, and whites making $100,000 or more by 14 points. Trump won white women (+9) and white men (+31). According to preelection polling in 2016, in a tally of white voters only, Trump would have defeated Clinton 389 to 81 in the Electoral College, with the remaining 68 votes either a toss-up or unknown. The racial and ethnic isolation of whites at the zip code level was one of the strongest predictors of Trump support.
A 13-year-old with a history of trouble at school, his father Fred Trump sent him to a military academy to be straightened out. New York Military Academy in Cornwall-on-Hudson boasted of its record whipping rebellious boys into shape.
Trump often points to his five years at the New York Military Academy , about 60 miles from his home town of New York City, as a formative period in his life that helped qualify him to be commander in chief. He has said that the school provided him “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.”
After his 18th birthday in June 1964, Donald J. Trump registered with the Selective Service, as did all men his age. Trump received the first of four education deferments as he worked his way through his undergraduate studies. After graduating from the Wharton School of Finance in the spring of 1968, making him eligible to be drafted and sent to Vietnam, he received a diagnosis that would change his path: bone spurs in his heels. The diagnosis resulted in a coveted 1-Y medical deferment. The draft lottery began in December 1969. Because of his medical exemption, his lottery number would have been irrelevant. Trump remained 1-Y until 1972, when his status changed to 4-F, permanently disqualifying him.
Trump followed in his father’s footsteps as a real estate developer. In the 1970s, the Justice Department accused the Trump organization of violating the Fair Housing Act, by preventing minorities from renting in his buildings. Donald Trump settled the case out of court.
The younger Trump had cultivated business contacts through his father. With that support, Trump has said he set up his own company with a $1 million investment. He entered the world of real estate development in New York. The Trump signature soon became synonymous with the most prestigious of addresses in Manhattan and subsequently throughout the world.
Trump was known for building casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey. First, Trump Plaza. Then Trump Castle. Then the Taj Mahal, costing nearly $1 billion. But it eventually went bankrupt. When the real estate market crashed in 1990, the value of his empire dropped from $1.7 billion to $500 million. He borrowed money and found new investors to avoid bankruptcy.
An accomplished author, Trump co-authored over fourteen bestsellers and his first book, The Art of the Deal, in addition to being the #1 book of the year, was considered a business classic.
"The Donald," as he would come to be known in the media, divorced his first wife, Ivana, with whom he had three children. He married and later divorced Marla Maples. Trump married his current wife, Slovenian model Melania, in 2005. His reality TV show The Apprentice made Trump a star. Contestants competed to be managers in Trump's empire. Those who failed were targeted with Trump's signature line: "You're fired." The show earned Trump more than $200 million.
After every presidential election since 1972, the top advisers to both major party nominees gather for a postmortem panel discussion at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. In a critique that generated audible groans among the dozens of assembled journalists who covered the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski complained that reporters erred by reporting on what actually Trump said at his events. “This is the problem with the media,” he said, when discussing the proposed Muslim ban. “You guys took everything that Donald Trump said so literally! The American people didn’t. They understood it. They understood that sometimes — when you have a conversation with people, whether it’s around the dinner table or at a bar — you’re going to say things, and sometimes you don’t have all the facts to back it up.”
At the age of 70, Donald Trump became the oldest person to be sworn in as President of the United States. On December 4, 2015, the Trump campaign released a letter signed by Dr. Harold N. Bornstein, who said that he had treated Trump since 1980. The letter stated : “His physical strength and stamina are extraordinary.... If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest person ever elected to the presidency.”
Roger Stone, a longtime Republican operative and once a member of Trump’s 2016 White House run, predicted Trump’s opponents will try to oust him from office by insisting he’s become incapacitated by Alzheimer’s disease. Some articles and online comments pointed out behaviors of Trump’s that are consistent with Alzheimer’s: meandering speech, poor self-control, not properly responding to questions that are asked, erratic behavior. Trump used two hands to drink a glass of water at his State of the Union speech to Congress. This garnered a lot of attention as it was peculiar, and some wondered if he has visual/spatial problems that may be related to aging or onset of dementia. To some, he appeared to have problems walking up or down inclinations and needs to hold guard rails when managing stairs. The alleged frailties are not always in evidence.
Donald Trump came into office pledging to avoid conflicts of interest by resigning from his global business empire and handing control to his sons. Despite those steps, more potential conflicts have surfaced since his inauguration, fueled by the president’s critics and, in one case, his own tweet.
Foreign government entities continue to rent space at Trump Tower in New York. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, a state-owned bank, was Trump Tower's biggest tenant, occupying 11 percent of the tower's office space. Trump regularly receives money — and, without judicial intervention, will continue to receive money during his presidency — through the leases that the ICBC and the Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority hold in Trump Tower. Trump issued January 27 and March 4 executive orders attempting to impose a temporary travel ban on a handful of predominantly Muslim nations -- but the list excluded well-off Muslim countries where he has ongoing businesses or had explored future deals. Trump has real estate and golf courses in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Indonesia; he has also considered real estate deals in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
A lawsuit by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) claims that a provision in the Constitution known as the Emoluments Clause bans payments from foreign powers like the ones to Trump’s companies. They cite fears among the framers of the Constitution that United States officials could be corrupted by gifts or payments.
Trump resigned from his businesses and put them in a trust under the care of his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric Trump, and advised by ethics experts. Eric Trump said allegations that payments from the China bank and Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority are illegal amount to "purely harassment for political gain." Trump has resigned from his businesses and put them in a trust under the care of his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric Trump, and advised by ethics experts. The president’s son Eric Trump, who was an executive vice president of the Trump Organization, said the company had taken more steps than required by law to avoid legal exposure, such as agreeing to donate any profits collected at Trump-owned hotels that come from foreign government guests to the United States Treasury.
Lara Brown, interim director of George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management, said 30 May 2017 very few of Trump's staff have the skills needed to run a complex organization like the White House. "A lot of people within the White House have very little experience with government and the process of American politics," she said.
Brown said one of the Trump White House's biggest weaknesses was that the president's management style was not suited to running a vast, interconnected series of organizations. "President Trump has always run his businesses in a closely held fashion, with very few individuals who have essentially managed separate projects," Brown told VOA. "That's not how politics works. Everything is profoundly connected, so you have a lot of people [in the White House] who don't understand how to maneuver through this process."
Elaine Kamarck, suggested June 9, 2017 "... a model for continuing chaos, with the likely result that power will begin to drain from the White House towards other centers.... It is likely that governors and corporate leaders may begin to take action regardless of what the White House thinks. Power can also move to Congress where possibilities for a limited tax bill and some infrastructure spending can move more or less without White House leadership. And internationally, power can move to the heads of Germany and France in Europe and also to China, as the United States pulls back from the world or offers leadership that is too unstable to count on. It’s unclear whether turning the presidency into a sideshow would be permanent or not. But continuing chaos from a Trump presidency could do it at least temporarily.
"The other possibility for removal is that the President becomes even more erratic, more unpredictable and more unhinged from reality and that this manifests itself in some unambiguous way. In this case Vice President Pence and the Cabinet could invoke the 25th amendment to the Constitution which is to be used “whenever the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” If approved by 2/3 of the House and Senate, Trump would no longer be president."
Nearly six months since he took office, Trump faced a declining approval rating that had dropped from 42 percent in April 2017 to 36 percent in July 2017, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll of 1,001 adults. Similarly, his disapproval rating has jumped five points to 58 percent. A total of 48 percent of respondents said they “disapprove strongly” of the president’s performance in office: A low threshold never reached by ex-presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, both Democrats, and only reached once by George W. Bush, during his second term. And 48 percent also see American global leadership weakening since Trump entered the White House, while 27 percent said it was stronger. Most respondents (66 percent) said they do not or only somewhat trust Trump in negotiating with foreign leaders, especially with Russian President Vladimir Putin (also 66 percent). Of those, 48 percent said they do not trust Trump "at all" in negotiations with Putin.
Only 33 percent of Republicans polled said Russia tried to influence the election, compared with 80 percent of Democrats. Overall, 60 percent of all American adults said Russia tried to tilt the elections, a slight increase from 56 percent in April 2017. Just seven percent of Republicans said the Trump campaign intentionally helped Russian efforts, compared with 65 percent of Democrats.
After the election, Trump asked Anthony Scaramucci to join the Administration, and Scaramucci sold his company, SkyBridge Capital, in anticipation of taking on a senior role. But Priebus didn’t want him in the White House, and successfully blocked him. Scaramucci explained to New York magazine reporter Jessica Pressler in January 2017: "... the other thing I have learned about these people in Washington ... is they have no money. So what happens when they have no fucking money is they fight about what seat they are in and what the title is. Fucking congressmen act like that. They are fucking jackasses."
On 26 July 2017 Scaramucci told reporter Ryan Lizza that "Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac... I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock ... I’m not trying to build my own brand off the fucking strength of the President.... What I want to do is I want to fucking kill all the leakers and I want to get the President’s agenda on track so we can succeed for the American people... "
Donald Trump and his new Chief of Staff John Kelly requested Anthony Scaramucci to resign on 31 July 2017. The First Family reportedly did not enjoy the vulgarity associated with the White House following Scaramucci's profanity-laced tirades. Scaramucci endured quite a bit of drama during his brief high-profile tenure — some of which he had sparked. His wife filed for divorce shortly after he accepted the position as Communications Director.
The White House had been a lot like Trump's reality show, "The Apprentice" since January 20. National Security Adviser Mike Flynn stepped down, Press Secretary Sean Spicer was relieved of his duties, FBI Director James Comey was dismissed, Preibus was the latest chip to fall last week, and on the first day of Gen. John F. Kelly's watch as White House Chief of Staff, the New York financier got the "you're fired" memo.
On 28 July 2017 Donald Trump named General John F. Kelly as the new White House chief of staff. The position had previously been occupied by former Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Reince Priebus.
Donald Trump told a group of law enforcement officials on 28 July 2017 that they needn't "be too nice" in making arrests, he might have thought he was playing masterfully to the crowd. And the line — "[W]hen you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon — you just see them thrown in, rough — I said, please don't be too nice," did get some laughter. The following, "Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you're protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over? Like, don't hit their head and they've just killed somebody — don't hit their head. I said, you can take the hand away, okay?" did, too, plus applause.
The president praised the increasing militarization of US police, saying "You know, when you wanted to take over and you used military equipment — and they were saying you couldn't do it — you know what I said? That was my first day: You can do it".
Trump drew criticism from across the U.S. political spectrum for saying that hate groups and counterprotesters shared blame for the violence on 11-12 August 2017 in Charlottesville VA that left one woman dead and 19 injured when a Nazi sympathizer drove his car at high speed into a group of counterprotesters. White nationalists, the racist Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis shouted chants against racial minorities and Jews at the rally.
Trump's comments on 14 August 2017, in which he said demonstrators from hate groups and counterprotesters shared the blame for the violence, unleashed unprecedented criticism of the president by Republican lawmakers. Some admonished Trump by name. Most released comments rejecting bigotry, though the timing of their messages indicated they were clearly responding to the president's remarks. Republican Senator Bob Corker called for "radical change" in the White House to avoid "great peril." Corker said "The president has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability, nor some of the competence, that he needs to demonstrate in order for him to be successful".
Chief strategist Steve Bannon suggested that Trump's focus on the Confederate statues was a winning political strategy, even if Democrats accuse the president of aiding racist groups. "The Democrats," he said, "the longer they talk about identity politics, I got 'em. I want them to talk about racism every day. If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats."
There was a lot of talk about Trump impeachment by mid-2017. It was too early to begin having the impeachment conversation. Impeachment was much more a political (instead of a legal) process and with the GOP controlling both chambers and Trump's popularity in the party being (relatively) healthy the political dynamics didn't signal impeachment. That could change in January 2019 if the Republicans lose either the House or Senate in November 2018.
Donald Trump on 18 August 2017 told senior officials he had decided to dismiss Steve Bannon, who from the beginning of the six-month-old tumultuous administration had been his most controversial adviser. Bannon, who was credited with helping Trump get elected, had clashed for months with other powerful West Wing figures.
Donald Trump has intensified his criticism of professional football players kneeling in protest during the national anthem before the games. His comments had wide repercussions. National Football League players initiated the gesture last year in protest against US police officers' violence toward African-Americans and racism. Trump criticized the NFL players during a rally in the state of Alabama on 22 September 2017. He criticized the gesture as insulting to the country and insisted the protesting players be fired.
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who was known as a friend of Trump, expressed in a statement "deep disappointment" with the president's comments. Some Major League baseball players have begun refusing to stand for the national anthem. The National Basketball Association, or NBA, champion team has also announced it has canceled a planned visit to the White House.
US media reported in late September 2017 that at least 6 aides to President Donald Trump used private e-mail addresses for government business. It was revealed on 24 September 2017 that Trump's son-in-law and senior White House advisor Jared Kushner exchanged nearly 100 e-mails on official matters through his private account. The next day, the New York Times reported that other aides did the same, including Trump's daughter Ivanka, former chief strategist Steve Bannon and former chief of staff Reince Priebus.
The use of private e-mail was a focal point in the 2016 US presidential election. Trump's campaign attacked his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for her use of a private server for official correspondence while she was Secretary of State. She was criticized because it was claimed that the practice could have led to classified information being leaked.
Details of e-mails exchanged by Trump's aides were not immediately available, but the revelations could invite a backlash, particularly from the Democratic Party.
Nintendo fans proclaimed that Mario Kart was ruined for them after excerpts of Stormy Daniels' September 2018 autobiography "Full Disclosure" revealed colorful allegations concerning the president's package. "He knows he has an unusual penis," Daniels writes, according to The Guardian. "It has a huge mushroom head. Like a toadstool." While that was more than enough for some, the adult film star and director made sure to drive the point home. "I lay there, annoyed that I was getting f**ked by a guy with Yeti pubes and a d*ck like the mushroom character in Mario Kart."
Melania Knavs was born was born on April 26, 1970 in Slovenia, and claims she always dreamed of becoming a model. The First Lady of the United States had a successful career after meeting fashion photographer Stane Jerko in 1987 at a modelling contest. Melania married Donald Trump in January 2005. Melania's modeling photos were used in attack ads from political competitors, and she was caught in an embarrassing plagiarism scandal. The media's scrutiny of their relationship intensified even further during a May 2017 trip to the Middle East. When the president reached out to hold her hand, Melania was caught on camera apparently swatting it away.
It was commonly said that Melania has had extensive plastic surgery. People have speculated about that Melania Trump had breast implants early in her modelling career. With rhinoplasty, Melania transformed her nose into a sharper and pointed shape. The fresh-faced looks of her modelling heyday seem to have had help from cosmetic professionals in her slide towards middle age. Her wrinkle free fresh looking face was the result of Botox treatment. She was fairly attractive -- if you didn't stand too close or look with scrutiny -- and Trump parades her around as arm candy.
For the 2007 Golden Globes, Ivanka shocked everyone when she arrived with obvious breast augmentation. One fashionista noted "... they're too large for her frame and the biggest reason why people think she's had tons of work done. Maybe all she's changed is her nose and the boobs, but the latter are so obviously fake, it makes you wonder about the whole package.... I say a boob job and at least one rhinoplasty for sure. I'm guessing she has started to dabble in Botox, too, although I'm not sure about the fillers yet. Her lips were always quite full... "
Tabloids reported that women around the world are spending fortunes to look more like Ivanka Trump. Trump has never shied away from vocalizing his objectionable thoughts on his daughter’s looks
In electing a reality show star as president, the American people chose optics over substance. On 17 January 2017, InTouch magazine ran excerpts from an interview with adult-film star Stormy Daniels (née Stephanie Clifford) wherein she detailed having a 2006 affair with then-future-president Donald Trump. The piece was the first confirmation from Daniels about the affair, which had been much rumored prior to the 2016 election. Rumors of Trump’s affair with Daniels did, indeed, grace the cover of the October 24, 2011 issue of Life & Style.
The release of an interview that Daniels gave to InTouch magazine several years earlier not only seems to confirm that it happened, but has given the public way too much information about their short-lived relationship. Stormy told In Touch, “[The sex] was textbook generic,” while discussing the fling they had less than four months after Donald’s wife, Melania, gave birth to their son, Barron. “I actually don’t even know why I did it, but I do remember while we were having sex, I was like, ‘Please, don’t try to pay me.’” After the encounter, Stormy says Trump pursued her and the two met on several more occasions, including at his private bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in LA. As for the later encounters, she said: “ ... He told me once that I was someone to be reckoned with, beautiful, smart, just like his daughter.”
The matter drew renewed attention after The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s personal lawyer paid her $130,000 to keep quiet. "A lawyer for President Donald Trump arranged a $130,000 payment to a former adult-film star a month before the 2016 election as part of an agreement that precluded her from publicly discussing an alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump, according to people familiar with the matter." The InTouch magazine interview with Daniels was conducted in 2011, which means it occurred before the performer signed the reported NDA.
Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, said this never happened. Responding to the allegations, Cohen stated, "President Trump once again vehemently denies any such occurrence, as has Ms. Daniels." "This is now the second time that you are raising outlandish allegations against my client," Cohen continued. "You have attempted to perpetuate this false narrative for over a year; a narrative that has been consistently denied by all parties since at least 2011."
Over on Saturday Night Live “Weekend Update,” Colin Jost, echoing sentiments shared widely across the world, cracked about the breakneck speed at which new Trump scandals were appearing in the press. “Let me just say what a thrill it is to be alive a time when ‘Porn star blackmails president’ is, like, the fourth biggest story of the week,” Jost said. “At this rate, in a year from now, we’re going to find ‘Trump found with dead hooker’ right next to the crossword puzzle.”
Daniels, according to an article published by tabloid magazine InTouch Weekly, described how she could make Donald Trump behave as her “puppet”. Daniels told Randy Spears, a friend and fellow adult performer, “She said, ‘It was almost like he was so taken with me that I could move him around like a puppet'”. Her comment shed light on an aspect of Trump’s personality not often discussed — the seeming ease with which he can be manipulated by others. Journalist Willam Saletan’s in Slate in November 2016 described Trump as “an emotional weakling” whose “emotional softness makes him morally weak.”
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' investigators suggested the Enquirer’s coverage of his affair was driven by dirty politics, and the high-profile clash has pitted the world’s richest man against the leader of America’s best-known tabloid, who was a strong backer of President Donald Trump. Trump has been highly critical of Bezos over his ownership of The Washington Post and Amazon, and the Post’s coverage of the White House. Bezos’ affair became public when the Enquirer published story on Jan. 9 about his relationship with Lauren Sanchez, who was also married. Michael Sanchez was his sister’s manager, a Trump supporter and an acquaintance of Trump allies Roger Stone and Carter Page.
By early 2019 Trump had found his campaign battle cry, condemning socialism and painting it as the flawed ideology of his Democratic opponents. During his appearance at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in march 2019, Trump accused Democrats of wanting “to replace individual rights with total government domination.” Trump said “Socialism is not about the environment, it’s not about justice, it’s not about virtue. Socialism is about only one thing, it’s called power for the ruling class.”
The message was repeated by Vice President Mike Pence who also spoke at CPAC. “Under the guise of Medicare-for-all and a Green New Deal, Democrats are embracing the same, tired economic theories that have impoverished nations and have stifled the liberties of millions over the past century,” Pence said. “That system is socialism.”
Socialism can encompass a wide range of policies, but in the United States, some prominent politicians are championing the term to refer to efforts that propose raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans to address the country’s widening income gap, funding universal health care and providing more jobs that pay enough for people to support a family. Public opinion polls indicate a majority of Americans support each of those policies, even though “socialism” as a political concept continues to be favored by a minority of voters.
With his national emergency declaration to build the border wall — a signature campaign promise — facing steep opposition and multiple ongoing investigations of his administration, family and business empire, Trump and his Republican allies blasted socialism as a political boogeyman and painting Democratic presidential hopefuls as far-left extremists, with Bernie Sanders as a main target.
According to a 2018 Gallup poll, even though the majority of Republicans remain much more positive about capitalism than socialism, 57 percent of Democrats have a favorable view of socialism. While the term socialism for previous generations was understood to be a really awful and terrible thing, for many supporters of socialism today, the term represents progressive ideas and an expansive welfare state.
Trump asked Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in a phone call in July 2019 to investigate Biden and his son over allegations of corruption, even though there was no evidence of wrongdoing by the former vice president or his son. Hunter Biden was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company. Trump froze $400m in US aid to Ukraine shortly before he asked its president for the favor, prompting accusations from Democrats that he had used US foreign policy for his own benefit.
On September 24 Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the United States House of Representatives announced a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump acquiescing to mounting pressure from fellow Democrats and plunging a deeply divided nation into an election-year clash between Congress and the president. On September 25 the White House releases a summary of the phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian president. Read the summary here. House and Senate intelligence panels receive the whistle-blower complaint. On September 26 the House Intelligence Committee releases a redacted version of the whistle-blower complaint.
Trump on 03 October 2019 again invited foreign interference in a US presidential election, by publicly calling on China to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden, a repeat of the request that had already triggered an impeachment inquiry in Congress. As he left the White House for a visit to Florida, the Republican president told reporters he believed both China and Ukraine should look into 2020 presidential hopeful Biden and his businessman son Hunter. "And by the way, likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens. Because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine," Trump said.
The US House Intelligence Committee's chairman, Democrat Adam Schiff, said that President Trump broke his oath of office in asking China to probe former Vice President Joe Biden, who could end up running against Trump in the 2020 election. "The president of the United States encouraging a foreign nation to interfere again to help his campaign by investigating a rival is a fundamental breach of a president's oath of office. It endangers our elections. It endangers our national security. It ought to be condemned by every member of this body, Democrats and Republicans alike," Schiff told reporters.
US Senator and former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said it was "wrong and appalling" for Trump to push other nations to investigate Biden. "When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China's investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated," Romney said on Twitter. "By all appearances, the president’s brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling."
Retired Adm. Bill McRaven, former SOCOM commander, publicly slammed Trump for undermining American institutions like the Postal Service. "Today, as we struggle with social upheaval, soaring debt, record unemployment, a runaway pandemic, and rising threats from China and Russia, President Trump is actively working to undermine every major institution in this country," McRaven warned in an op-ed published 17 August 2020 in the Washington Post. "And if Americans stop believing in the system of institutions, then what is left but chaos and who can bring order out of chaos: only Trump. It is the theme of every autocrat who ever seized power or tried to hold onto it."
A group of angry Donald Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill on 06 Janaury 2020 and clashed with police in violence that left four people dead. They were attempting to prevent the confirmation of Joe Biden's election victory. They descended on the US Capitol after Trump made a speech to his supporters, imploring them to "fight" to stop the "steal" of the election. Rioters overwhelmed police at the U.S. Capitol during the congressional certification of the Electoral College vote showing that Biden had defeated Trump in the November election. The throng of Trump supporters stormed into some congressional offices and ransacked them, littered the floors with government documents and scuffled with police. Five people were left dead, with three protesters dying from medical emergencies, another fatally shot by police, and a police officer killed in what authorities are investigating as a homicide.
Former President Barack Obama called the violence "a moment of great dishonor and shame for our nation." George W. Bush, the 43rd Commander-in-Chief, likened the clashes to an "insurrection." Bush said in a statement that “this is how election results are disputed in a banana republic.”
Vice President Mike Pence rejected calls to remove Trump under the 25th amendment. Kentucky Republican McConnell reportedly said he was pleased with the Democrats moving to impeach Trump, and that he believes Trump had committed impeachable acts, the New York Times reported citing a Republican strategist, who added the Senate majority leader's distancing from the president could make it easier for the Republican party to cut ties with Trump once he leaves office.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said "we know that the president of the United States incited this insurrection, this armed rebellion. He must go. He is a clear and present danger to the nation." Democrat Jim McGovern of Massachusetts said that people died because of Trump's "big lies." He said, "We are debating this historic measure at an actual crime scene and we wouldn't be here if it weren't for the president of the United States. This was a well-organized attack on our country that was incited by Donald Trump," adding that Trump "instigated an attempted coup." McGovern said "If this is not an impeachable offense, I don't know what the hell is". Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas called Trump an "insurrectionist," and her Texan colleague Lloyd Doggett said, "we stopped the steal, we stopped Donald Trump from stealing our democracy and imposing himself as a tyrant."
Liz Cheney, a member of the Republican Party leadership team, was among Republicans who voted for impeachment. "The president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack," Cheney said. "There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution ... I will vote to impeach the president," her statement continued.
On 13 Janaury 2021 Donald Trump became the first US president to be impeached twice. Lawmakers have accused Trump of "incitement of insurrection" following the Capitol storming. Lawmakers supporting impeachment said Trump was responsible for inciting a mob of supporters that stormed the Capitol Building. The resolution to impeach passed by 232 to 197. Ten Republicans joined 222 Democrats in voting for impeachment.
The Senate will not meet again until January 19 — one day before President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, which all but ensures an impeachment trial will take place only after Trump leaves office.
After four years in the White House, Donald Trump left the presidency with low job approval ratings following the January 6 attack by his supporters on the US Capitol, according to three new public opinion surveys. One poll showed an overwhelming majority of Americans opposed the mob violence at the Capitol and two suggest most people think Trump should be prevented from running for office again. Trump’s approval rating dropped to 29 percent in the latest Pew Research Center survey, an all-time low. Most US adults – 89 percent in the Washington Post-ABC News survey – oppose the actions of the people who stormed the US Capitol. The Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 56 percent of Americans favour disqualifying Trump from ever holding office in the future. The Pew survey found that 68 percent of Americans do not want to see Trump remain a major political figure in the years to come.
Still, 56 percent of Republicans in the ABC-Washington Post survey said Trump bears no blame at all for the Capitol attack and 66 percent of Republicans said Trump has acted responsibly since the election. A majority continue to believe his false claims that the election was rigged, according to the survey. Further, 51 percent of Republicans said Republican members of Congress did not go far enough in supporting Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Talk of a Myanmar-style coup in the United States had been popular among some Trump supporters and QAnon believers for months. By May 2021 Trump had been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August. Trump's former lawyer's, Sidney Powell told attendees at the 29-30 May 2021 conference in Dallas linked to the QAnon conspiracyo that Trump "can simply be reinstated." She explained "A new inauguration date is set, and Biden is told to move out of the White House, and President Trump should be moved back in... I'm sure there's not going to be credit for time lost, unfortunately, because the Constitution itself sets the date for inauguration, but he should definitely get the remainder of his term and make the best of it."
Michael Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, was also among the keynote speakers at the For God & Country Patriot Roundup. Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his role in the Russia scandal but was later pardoned by Trump, has maintained that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. Flynn told attendees at that what happened in Myanmar — where the military overthrew the government — “should happen here” in the United States. Flynn is the same person who, along with his attorney Sidney Powell, was in the Oval Office in December 2020 suggesting Trump invoke martial law to remain in office. Richard Painter, the White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, now a Democrat, argued that Flynn should be prosecuted for sedition. Painter argues that Flynn, as a retired general, is held to a higher bar under military law.
Retired four-star U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey said Flynn's "dangerous rhetoric" is "harmful" to the country. "This is putting the country at risk," McCaffrey said. "I have never heard anything like this, probably in the last hundred years. This kind of, just completely irresponsible, provocative language.... I think Mike Flynn has a mental health problem, to be blunt," McCaffrey said. "He has slipped into a different realm."
David Rothkopf wrote: "Donald Trump is undoubtedly America’s worst president, the only president to be impeached twice, the only person to lead a coup against the United States government, the president who presided over and was personally responsible for the greatest one year loss of life in American history, the only president since Herbert Hoover to actually leave office with fewer people employed than when he was sworn in, the only world leader to have been summarily banned from virtually all major social media sites because his words were so inflammatory, the most prolific liar if not conspiracy theorist in U.S. political history (which is saying something), a man who managed to be at once the most corrupt, the most odious, the most ignorant, the most ineffective and the most evil political leader in U.S. history."
By July 2022 Trump had uniquely ghastly numbers that seemed to be getting worse. Amid the Jan. 6 hearings, most voters (52%) now think “Trump committed a crime by trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election”; even more (54%) think the U.S. Department of Justice should prosecute him. And nearly 6 in 10 Americans (59%) say that Trump shouldn’t run for president again either. Only 28% say he should. If anything, the defeated, disgraced, twice impeached president, in pouting exile, has become more vicious, unhinged, narcissistic, dishonest, reckless, and demagogic than he was as Mad King. A New York jury on 09 May 2023 found Trump sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll and then defamed her with his denials, awarding her $5 million in damages. The nine-member jury reached a unanimous verdict in the civil trial. Donald Trump sexually abused magazine writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s and then defamed her by branding her a liar, jurors decided on Tuesday, dealing the former U.S. president a legal setback as he campaigns to retake office in 2024. The nine-member jury in Manhattan federal court awarded $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Although the finding of sexual abuse was enough to establish his liability for battery, the jury did not find that Trump raped her. The jury deliberated for just under three hours before rejecting Trump's denial that he assaulted Carroll. To find him liable, the jury of six men and three women was required to reach a unanimous verdict.
Because the case was in civil court, Carroll was required to establish her rape claim by "a preponderance of the evidence" - meaning more likely than not - rather than the higher standard used in criminal cases of "proof beyond a reasonable doubt." Carroll had to show "clear and convincing evidence" to prove her defamation claim.
New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Trump, his sons Eric and Don Jr and other executives of colossally inflating the value of their real estate assets in order to receive more favorable bank loans and insurance terms. Trump and his adult sons are accused of deceiving banks and insurers by overstating his wealth by as much as $3.6 billion. Trump's own apartment in that building is among the spaces that were fraudulently overvalued -- it was listed as three times bigger than its true size. Trump's luxury Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida -- the site of the classified documents drama -- and several other Trump Organization golf clubs also appear in James's complaint.
Trump does not risk going to jail in the civil trial, but James is seeking $250 million in penalties and the removal of the former president and his sons from the management of the family empire, the Trump Organization. Trump -- who made his reputation and fortune as a real estate mogul in the 1980s and had promised to bring his cut-throat industry tactics to the Oval Office -- could eventually lose control over many of his company's flagship properties, such as his 5th Avenue Trump Tower in Manhattan.
Trump denounced the business fraud charges as a "sham" intended to torpedo his bid to recapture the White House next year. Trump, arriving in court, denounced the case as a "scam" and a "witchhunt." The 77-year-old Trump said "My financial statements are phenomenal."
Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump, his sons and other executives lied to tax collectors, lenders and insurers for years in a scheme that exaggerated the value of their properties by $812 million to $2.2 billion between 2014 and 2021. As a result, the judge revoked the business licenses that allowed the Trump Organization to operate some of its New York properties and asked the parties to propose receivers to manage the dissolution of the companies in question.
Jonathan Chaitwote in The National Interest 09 November 2023 :"Donald Trump has been telling anybody who would listen that if he wins a second term, his plan is to lock up his political enemies. “This is third-world-country stuff: ‘Arrest your opponent,’” Trump said last month. “And that means I can do that, too.” In an interview with Univision, he gave the same rationale: “Yeah. If they do this, and they’ve already done it, but if they follow through on this, yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse,” he said. “It could certainly happen in reverse. What they’ve done is they’ve released the genie out of the box.” He added later: “They have done something that allows the next party — I mean, if somebody, if I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say, ‘Go down and indict them.’ They’d be out of business; they’d be out of the election.”
In an interview with the Univision television network, Trump said " I think the people know it's a political persecution. It's a political hoax. This is Biden, who's the worst president in the history of our country. We've never had a president so dumb, so incompetent and so corrupt from the standpoint of what they're doing. They've weaponized the Justice Department, they've weaponized the FBI, and they've come at me with the worst indictments. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. And I'm probably the only guy ever indicted whose poll numbers have shot up through the roof. I mean, it's actually been helpful from the standpoint of getting elected because the people understand it. It's a hoax. And everything they did, whether they rigged the election last time or this, it's the same thing. It's all the same thing. And frankly, it's the only thing they're good at. They're good at rigging elections. This is a form of rigging an election. So, they think they can damage me. Now, so far, it's been the exact opposite, because when you study it and I have a voice, I mean, I have a voice with you. I have a voice with others where I can talk about it. Whereas other people, if they ever got indicted, they're out of politics. They go to the microphone, they say, I'm going to spend the rest of my life, you know, clearing my name. I'm going to spend the rest of my life with my family. I've seen it hundreds of times... Biden is a man who has unleashed something that's a very bad thing, because when that happens to me, it can happen to them....
"If they do this and they've already done it, but if they want to follow through on this, yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse. It could certainly happen in reverse. What they've done is they've released the genie out of the box. You understand that They've done something that nobody thought would happen. They've taken a president who is very popular. I got 75 million votes, much more than that. I believe no president's ever gotten that many votes and they've taken that number of people. And I think you can double it or almost you can triple it in terms of the real the feeling....
"... if I happen to be president and I see somebody who's doing well and beating me very badly, I say go down and indict them. Mostly what that would be, you know, they would be out of business. They'd be out they'd be out of the election. "
Kash Patel served as Trump’s counterterrorism adviser on the National Security Council and also as chief of staff to the acting secretary of defense. On a podcast hosted by Trump’s former strategist Stephen Bannon, during a discussion about a potential second Trump presidency beginning in 2025, Patel said : “We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media,” Mr. Patel said. “Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections — we’re going to come after you. Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out.” He added: “We’re actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have.”
The financial condition of former US leader Donald Trump could be seriously affected by consecutive negotiations in two civil cases. They led to astronomical fines for the politician, writes The Hill. On 16 February 2024 a New York judge ordered Donald Trump to pay about $355 million, plus interest, for misrepresenting his net worth on key financial statements to obtain tax and insurance benefits.
Another court ruling requires a politician to pay writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her in 2019. The former US president has denied allegations that he sexually assaulted her decades earlier. Together, the two fines total $438.1 million, and interest on the fraud fine could increase that amount to $500 million.
On February 13 , it became known that Trump, by court decision, was prohibited from holding leadership positions in any company in the state of New York for three years. The politician was also deprived of the right to request loans from state banks. The court found that the businessman falsified financial statements in order to obtain loans and insurance at more favorable rates. Trump's lawyers are expected to appeal.
While appearing outside Dayton, Ohio, at an event in support of Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, Trump said that China was trying to undercut the American auto industry by manufacturing cars in Mexico. "They think that they're going to sell those cars into the United States with no tax at the border. Let me tell you something to China. If you're listening President Xi [Jinping], and you and I are friends, but he understands the way I deal: Those big monster car manufacturing plants that you're building in Mexico right now, and you think you're gonna get that, you're gonna not hire Americans and you're gonna sell the cars to us -- no. We're gonna put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you're not gonna be able to sell those guys, if I get elected!" Trump said.
He then suggested there would be bigger issues if he isn't returned to the White House by voters. "Now, if I don't get elected, it's gonna be a bloodbath for the whole -- that's gonna to be the least of it -- it's gonna be a bloodbath for the country. That'll be the least of it," he said. "But they're not gonna sell those cars, they're building massive factories," Trump continued, returning to talking about auto manufacturing.
"How Far Trump Would Go." @EricCortellessa scored two interviews with Donald Trump for @TIME, asking him to explain what he'd do in a second term. "What emerged in two interviews with Trump, and conversations with more than a dozen of his closest advisers and confidants, were the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world. To carry out a deportation operation designed to remove more than 11 million people from the country, Trump told me, he would be willing to build migrant detention camps and deploy the U.S. military, both at the border and inland. He would let red states monitor women's pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans. He would, at his personal discretion, withhold funds appropriated by Congress, according to top advisers. He would be willing to fire a U.S. Attorney who doesn't carry out his order to prosecute someone, breaking with a tradition of independent law enforcement that dates from America's founding. He is weighing pardons for every one of his supporters accused of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, more than 800 of whom have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury. He might not come to the aid of an attacked ally in Europe or Asia if he felt that country wasn't paying enough for its own. defense. He would gut the U.S. civil service, deploy the National Guard to American cities as he sees fit, close the White House pandemic-preparedness office, and staff his Administration with acolytes who back his false assertion that the 2020 election was stolen."
Donald Trump accused US President Joe Biden’s administration of stooping to the level of the Nazi secret police to prevent him from winning this year’s election. “These people are running a Gestapo administration,” the former US leader told Republican donors at an event in Florida on 04 May 2024, according to audio shared with multiple national news outlets. “And it’s the only thing they have. And it’s the only way they’re going to win, in their opinion.”
Trump is currently facing four criminal cases, including an ongoing trial in New York over his alleged misreporting of ‘hush money’ payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. In addition to the New York case, the former president and presumptive Republican nominee to challenge Biden this November faces two federal cases concerning his alleged incitement of the January 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill, and his alleged mishandling of classified documents. He also faces state-level racketeering charges in Georgia over his supposed efforts to challenge Biden’s electoral victory in the state in 2020. Trump has painted all four cases as part of the same Democrat-orchestrated plot to take him out of the race for the White House. For almost three weeks, the trial in New York has effectively halted Trump’s campaign, forcing the embattled Republican to mostly forgo his usual rallies for shorter speeches on the courthouse steps.
Thi not the first time Trump has compared Biden to the tyrants of the 20th Century. In a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas earlier this year, he decried the “Stalinist show trials being carried out at Joe Biden’s orders,” and in a campaign ad last year, described Biden as a “corrupt Third-World dictator.” On the other hand, Trump has said that he would be “a dictator” for a day if elected, and would use executive orders to restart American fossil-fuel extraction, and deport millions of illegal immigrants.
A CNN survey showed him leading Biden by a 49%-43% margin, with six in ten respondents disapproving of Biden’s performance as president.
Trump never made it to the Oval office before noon and left between 5 and 6. He did not read the President's daily briefing book and insisted someone else read it and fill him in. He broke for lunch at 2PM in the dining room where he watched TV. Trump fell asleep in the middle of the day during his own trial - not once, but many times.
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