donald-trump – Page 3

The Conviction

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Former president, Donald J. Trump received the verdict on Thursday. The 34-count-guilty verdict was handed down by a Manhattan jury and to say it landed and exploded like a bomb would be an understatement.

It was a historical moment because no other former president has ever been convicted of a crime before and if nothing else, Mr. Trump will go down in the annals of history as having achieved that notorious honor.

On Friday, the less than defeated former president had recouped and was back to ranting, his favorite pastime. He lashed out at Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing the case and likened him to a “devil” and called the prosecution’s star witness, Michael Cohen, a “sleaze bag.” Oh well, it’s like the pot calling the kettle black, if you know what I mean. He went on to say, “November 5 is the most important day in the history of the country,” and the election would deliver “the real verdict.”

If a cat has nine lives, this wounded and albeit rabid one has more and that is the scary part. He’s looking for revenge and regaining the White House as his bully pulpit to vent, rage and to use it to his advantage would be his ultimate goal. It’s not about the “people” folks, it’s about one vengeful person and come hell or high water he wants it, like a spoiled brat who wants it his way at any cost.

July 11th has been set as the sentencing date and it falls four days before Republicans gather in Milwaukee to officially nominate Trump at their national convention. It should have been a happy event but now it will take place under a cloud, a cloud of uncertainty. Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsification of business records in the first degree and under New York law, falsification of business records is a crime when the records are altered with an intend to defraud. Each count carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

“How say you to the first count of the indictment, charging Donald J. Trump with the crime of falsifying business records in the first degree, guilty or not guilty?” the clerk asked.

“Guilty.” And so it went on as Trump closed his eyes, pursed his lips and shook his head. It took just about three minutes and Donald J. Trump, the former president, was now a felon.

However, it’s not over folks. Not until the fat lady sings or in this case, the former president decides it’s over. You can bet your bottom dollar that will never happen. The man or rather the child who never grew up is brewing up a storm and it will show when the time is right. For now, it will be interesting to watch as the newly crowned “felon” shows up at his next campaign rally surrounded by uncertainty except for one thing. He is now a felon.

Trump’s Legal Woes

According to David A. Graham of The Atlantic, “merely keeping track of the many cases against Donald Trump requires a great deal of attention, or both.” I say it’s going to take all of that and more to keep an eye on the 91 felony counts spread out across two state courts and two different federal districts that Mr. Trump is facing not to mention the civil lawsuits.

The 77-year-old is the first former president in US history to be criminally charged and that hasn’t been held against him so far. He seems to be doing fine and well as he makes his way to meet up with Joe Biden in November.

Let’s look at four of the upcoming cases that could spell trouble for Mr. Trump.

A payment of $130,000 was made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep the affair quiet, hush money so to speak. Trump, however, is denying he even had sex with her but I guess that’s what cheaters do. That aside, the former president is accused of falsifying his business records and saying that the expense was for legal fees. He’s facing a whopping 34 counts of fraud under campaign finance laws.

Trial is scheduled for 15 April.

Next in line is Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case on whether Trump illegally conspired to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden. We know he did but that’s besides the point. He’s been charged with four criminal counts which includes conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy against the rights of citizens.

Trial has been postponed until the Supreme Court decides if a former president should be prosecuted like any other citizen. Justices will hear the case on 25 April and make a decision by June. I think this one will be in his favor.

The next one is a huge racketeering investigation led by none other than Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis and she had this to say about the upcoming trial. “I do think that there are efforts to slow down this train, but the train is coming.” Trump and 18 other defendants are accused of conspiring to overturn his narrow defeat in the State of Georgia 2020 election.

Trial is set to take place at the beginning of August but a date has not been set yet.

The Mar-a-Lago documents case is next. It focuses on whether Mr Trump mishandled classified documents by moving documents from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago residence. Most of the counts are for the willful retention of national defence information, which incidentally falls under the Espionage Act.

Prosecutors want the trial to start in July but Trump and his lawyers want to put it off till after the presidential election.

There you have it. The former president and the current Republican nominee is facing an explosive amount of legal battles that could derail his run for the presidency, however, as I have said before “Orange Jesus” is like a cat with nine lives. If you ask me, he’s going to walk away with a light tap on his fingers, a cat that swallowed the cream smile plastered on his orange face and a HUGE click of his heels as he goes on his merry way only to create more havoc in the near future.

Trump’s Plus or Minus Problems

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Trump is no Einstein and neither is he as smart as he claims to be. Here are some of his most ignorant statements which proves that a genius he is NOT! He can’t even complete a full and coherent sentence let alone get his facts straight.

“If Trump goes to prison, it will be his first complete sentence.” Unknown

Let’s look at some of his quotes which shines the “stupid” spotlight on him.

“You know what uranium is, right? It’s this thing called nuclear weapons, and other things, like lots of things are done with uranium, including bad things.”

This is supposed to have come from a coherent mind, let alone an intelligent one?

“….I think, I think it would be, I think it would be very very, I thing we’d have a very very solid, we would continue what we’re doing, and we have other things on our plate.”

Huh?!! This was his answer when asked about his plan for the next 4 years. August 27, 2020

“We had 15 coronavirus cases. Within a couple of days, it’s going to be down to close to zero. One day, it’s like a miracle. It will disappear.”

Oops! It didn’t.

“When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total. And that’s the way it’s got to be.”

He played that card to the hilt, didn’t he?

“I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you can see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs so it would be interesting to check that.”

NO WORDS! This was his idea of finding a cure for COVID.

“North Korean leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times. Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger and more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”

His idea of foreign policy at its best. Who has got a bigger you know what!

Unfortunately, we can’t put it down to alcohol because he claims he doesn’t drink. The man must be drinking something to turn his skin orange and for all that nonsense to come out of his mouth. Orange Jesus claims to have a large you know what. His exact words were,

“And, he referred to my hands– ‘if they’re small, something else must be small.’ I guarantee you there’s no problem. I guarantee.”

Well, along came Stormy Daniels who shot down that theory. She described his significant body part as “smaller than average” but “not freakishly small.” So there you go, he loves to boast about his wealth, his intelligence, his “I can do one better than the other man,” and toots his “body parts” but the truth is something else. It is like his bloated sense of self-importance and of all things Trump. It is HUGE but in reality, a tinier version of himself.

The problem is he is on his way again and getting closer to having his finger on that BUTTON and in the hands of an unstable genius, it is a dangerous thing indeed. Who cares about size, just saying. There are bigger things to worry about where this man is concerned. And it is this folks.

“If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath…It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country,” if he loses the November election that is. He further added, “If this election isn’t won, I’m not sure that you’ll ever have another election in this country.”

The warning is loud and clear isn’t it?

Two Old Men

Both men are old, Biden is 81 and Trump is 77 years old. Both are suffering from cognitive decline in one form or another but if you listen to Fox News, it is Biden who is in his geriatric years. Both are battling to take the reins of the highest office in the land, one is currently there and wanting another four years whereas the other is giving his all to regain control of the White House which he lost and still hasn’t accepted cognitively that it was won legitimately and with no election interference. We look on in dismay or more specifically in terror as the election year moves on at a glacial pace as both men show us in more ways than one that neither one of them is the best choice and we need younger and more vibrant personalities to fill that space at the top of the tier.

Nonetheless, we are smack dub and in the middle of a geriatric year of elections. It has been an eye-opener so far and promises much more in the form of why “two old men” should not run for the highest office in the land.

Let’s look at some of Mr. Trump’s gaffes through the years.

His most famous was the word, “Covfefe.” POTUS tweeted this in May 2017, “Despite the constant negative press covfefe,” and the world sat up and took notice. Not because it was something prolific but because the word does not exist. There was a mad dash to unscramble what it meant and we later found out that it was a mistake and it was meant to be, “coverage.” Much ado about nothing indeed!

Then there was the time when Trump delivered a speech marking the 9/11 attacks and it went like this:

“I wrote this out, and it’s very close to my heart, because I was down there and I watched our police and our firemen down at 7/11, down at World Trade Center right after it came down.” He meant 9/11.

More recently, he confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi and praised Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban as “the leader of Turkey.” Shades of Biden?

Another faux pas which points to Mr. Trump’s state of mind is his September 15 speech in Washington when he warned, “that America was on the verge of World War II,” which ended in 1945.

Then on 14 September, Mr. Trump went on to say in his no nonsense and kingly fashion at a rally in South Carolina, “I’ve been saying, look, if they’re not going to pay, we’re not going to protect, OK?” And then he went on to say that he would encourage Russia to attack Nato members he deemed financially delinquent. If that doesn’t speak to his mental state, I don’t know what does!

After a NY judge ruled Thursday that jury selection will begin on March 25 with no delays in the hush money trial, Trump again called it an election interference ploy saying that he is stuck in court instead of being on the campaign trail which is all a lie. He does not need to sit in court day in and day out. His words were, “I’m honored to sit here day after day on something that everybody says the greatest legal scholars say it’s not even a crime.” The comment “smacked of entitlement to being above the law, which prosecutors and political opponents have long accused Trump of harboring.”

According to Ian Hughes, “Politicians who live in an angry narcissistic fog pose a clear threat to democracy and peace, and Donald Trump is a classic illustration of what this means in practice.” Not only that, “People like Trump with narcissistic personality disorder are driven to live out their lives by damaging others and pursuing their grandiose destructive dreams because they are psychologically incapable of coming to terms with the ‘fire and fury’ that lie within. Add to that the advancing years and you’ve got something to contend with.

Both men have had their share of geriatric moments but Mr. Trump is ahead in that respect. Can we trust either one of them to take up the reins of the highest office in the land? Whoever takes office should have a clear head, a steady hand and an unwavering propensity to lead in the right direction. The way I see it, Biden comes off looking like a spring chicken when compared to Trump. While “stupidity” reigns supreme in Trump’s world, Biden is calm, collected and presidential, faux pas aside. Moreover, he is a gentler version of what the White House needs when compared to the “know-nothing,” “unhinged, “crass,” and “liar” Trump!

The Bully

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“Bullying is the result of an unequal power dynamic – the strong attacking the weak.” Maria Konnikova

Trump is toxic, he is dangerous and he is a bully through and through. He has used the bully pulpit to his advantage and used his power to belittle those he deems not worthy of compassion or kindness. The man is ruthless when it comes to spewing insults. His motto is, “Talk first, think later,” and this approach has got him into hot water more than once. It seems his toxic nature is part and parcel of his makeup, character wise I mean. Furthermore, he is sorely lacking in how a President should present himself because everything comes down to one thing and that is himself. It is not about the people but about loud-mouthed, asinine Trump and that is why he goes from one gaffe to the next all the while with that Cheshire cat grin plastered on his face.

According to James Barber, who published a well-known study on presidential character, a good President should have the following leadership qualities:

A strong vision for the country’s future.

An ability to put their own times in the perspective of history.

Effective communication skills.

The courage to make unpopular decisions.

Crisis management skills.

Character and integrity.

Wise appointments.

An ability to work with Congress.

Furthermore, he added that Presidents must wear many hats and they “must somehow symbolize what American citizens believe to be the essence of their country. They must represent what is valued now and in the past. But even more importantly, they embody the direction of America’s future.”

Do you see Trump doing any or all of the above? He is first and foremost a playground bully who marches to his own drumbeat and that fact alone makes him more than dangerous. One thing he is good at is name-calling and he does it with such prowess that it is mind boggling. From “Crooked Hillary,” to “Pocohontas,” for Elizabeth Warren, to “Shifty Schiff,” for Adam Schiff and “Sleepy Biden,” for Biden but that is just touching the tip of the iceberg. Mr. Trump does not hold back when it comes to throwing punches of the unsavory kind. He takes it all in stride and moves on like the master manipulator he is.

He is single-handedly changing the characteristics of a President but not for the better. ”From referencing a television host’s menstrual cycle to using vulgar phrases to describe opponents to his encouragement of violence at rallies, Trump’s insults have known no bounds and have been a dominant storyline of the campaign,” and continue to be so even today. Other candidates have used insults and mud-slinging but not to the extend that “Orange Jesus” has. ”His speeches have crossed lines, pushed fact checkers to their limits and incited backlash – all the while further stoking the passions of his most ardent supporters.” Just look at his recent debacle where he said he would “encourage” Russia to attack any NATO country that does not contribute 2% of its GDP to the alliance’s coffers. It was a reckless threat which has contributed to fierce backlash in Europe. Does he care? What do you think?

Add to that his constant posturing like a peacock, running his mouth like a loose faucet and his GOD complex mentality and you’ve got a bully at his very best alas to the detriment of the country. Biden’s mental acuity is concerning but Trump’s playground antics and all out temper tantrums are far more terrifying if you ask me.

Trump Win

The man of the hour won and some of us cried. Nothing surprising here but still fact is stranger than fiction. A friend wrote this, “Trump is going to make the economy better and control the border is what people are saying but ignorance is overwhelming in America.”

Wearing Cheshire cat grins on their faces, Trump stepped onto the winner’s platform to deliver his victory speech flanked by former rivals, Vivek Ramaswamy and Tim Scott of South Carolina. Ramaswamy once said when pressed by George Stephanopoulos about Trump’s actions of January 6th, “I would have handled that situation very differently than Trump did. But I do draw a distinction between bad behavior and illegal behavior.” Tim Scott whispered three words, “I love you,” and the response in return was, “That’s why he’s a great politician.” Cringeworthy! Absolutely. They looked like the cats who swallowed the cream or rather, the cat who swallowed the canary!

He went on to eye his one standing opponent. In his normal fashion, he opened his mouth and this is what he had to say, “I said, wow, she’s doing a speech like she won. She didn’t win. She lost. Let’s not have somebody take a victory when she had a very bad night, She had a very bad night,” and more significantly, “I don’t get angry, I get even.” His victory speech was littered with false claims but that didn’t wipe the grin off his face. ”They used Covid to cheat,” “they lost by a whisker,” and “they want to raise your taxes times four.” He knows naught of what he speaks folks.

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” MLK

However, this says it better I think. ”In politics stupidity is not a handicap.” Napoleon Bonaparte

Nikki Haley for her part made her concession speech looking poised and ready to do battle. Claiming that the GOP race is “far from over” she went on to say, “Trump is the only Republican in the country who Joe Biden can defeat.” And she might be right there. The lady is determined, has the smarts to do it but it will be an uphill battle for her.

Let’s see, Trump is facing numerous indictments both from the state and federal levels including DOJ’s and Jack Smith, Special Counsel’s investigation into his alleged attempt in trying to overturn the 2020 elections which led to the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. He calls it a “witch hunt” but facts are facts. Will the so called “witch hunt” help to wipe off the Cheshire cat grin off his face? Let’s hope so. THERE IS STILL HOPE!

Trump Win

The man of the hour, Donald J. Trump, stepped onto the platform to acknowledge victory. His hair was perfectly coiffed, no runaways this time and with a smile plastered on his orange face and with his over-inflated ego in tow, he oozed graciousness and something more.

He pledged to seal up the border, stop the invasion of immigrants from the southern border, harness liquid gold or rather oil and to straighten out elections. A chant of, “America First,” broke out from his supporters and with an adoring smirk on his face, he said, “Iowa we love you. Just go out and buy larger tractors and more land. D’ont worry about it.”

The Indian-American entrepreneur, Vivek Ramaswamy in his Third presidential debate said, “What I would tell Bibi is that Israel has the right and the responsibility to defend itself. I would tell him to smoke those terrorists on his southern border” and if elected, “I will be smoking the terrorists on our southern border.” It didn’t quite work out for him. Coming in fourth place didn’t quite make his dreams come true, he has dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump in hopes of achieving his goal from the sidelines, the “smoking” part I mean.

In his toned down victory speech, Trump called on his opponents to join him to unify America. He actually went on to praise them saying, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, “actually did very well,” and praised Vivek Ramaswamy for doing a “hell of a job.” However, his insults of past calling Nikki Haley a “Globalist Rino” and saying, ”she can never win in the General Elections because she doesn’t have MAGA and never will.” He went on to add, “Ron Desanctimonious at least is MAGA-Lite.” None of that was front and center this time. He even went on to use their names instead of “bird brain” for Nikki Haley and “DeSantimonious” for DeSantis.

A gentler Trump? A unifier? Don’t bet your bottom dollar on it! The question is, what if he had lost? Fraud! Recount! Fight! Fake! These are all words we’ve heard coming out of the sore loser or sour grapes Trump. Winning at any cost is his motto so don’t let him fool you folks. It is still there. What? The five-year-old who loves throwing a temper tantrum when he doesn’t get his way is still there and the man who will go to great lengths in trying to overturn a legitimate election result is still there too. It is just a matter of time before the real Trump will show up in all his true colors and I don’t just mean “orange” either!