Presidential candidacy of Donald Trump

The Presidential candidacy of Donald Trump began years before he actually won the 2016 Republican Party presidential nomination. Indeed, Trump has been involved in politics for quite some time.

A guide to
U.S. Politics
Hail to the Chief?
Persons of interest
v - t - e

The Donald begins

George H.W. Bush started this when he considered Trump for vice president and planted the idea in his head, not realizing that Trump was some kind of Cthulhu in the making and unknowingly screwing his second son out of the chance.[1]

If there is anything this election has taught us, it's that Trump is playing Korean Starcraft while everyone else is playing checkers. He registered the slogan "Make America Great Again" six days into Barack Obama's second term.[2] There has been some (mostly baseless) speculation that Trump's entire candidacy is revenge for Obama's Roast jokes.

Testing the waters
“”My audience, 90% of them, they support you.
—Alex Jones to Trump, in a 2015 Infowars-exclusive interview[3]

Trump was a long-shot Republican contender for the 2012 Presidential nomination, so he could have run against Barack Obama. Then as now, Trump had no political experience, though he has a good deal of bankruptcy[4] business experience. Trump's ongoing activities were hard to reconcile with "conservative" positions: he owes a substantial portion of his wealth to his involvement in the gambling industry, and his apparel line is manufactured in the very country that he wanted to hit with punitive tariffs.[5] In 2011, he also became the first presidential hopeful to use the word "fucking" in a speech.[6]

When compared side-by-side with old Fox News personalities, it's pretty clear Trump was doing something akin to that (You suck, America! Now buy my book and I'll tell you why). Content to surf the media wave and pocket the donations,[7] Trump didn't hesitate to jump on the birther bandwagon, demanding to see Obama’s long-form birth certificate. He also believes Bill Ayers ghostwrote Dreams From My Father.[8][9]

He dropped out of the race after the aforementioned speech, which went against his work ethic heavily endorsed on The Apprentice. (Don't give up!) It can be speculated that this was an elaborate ruse to pump up the show in ratings. After NBC took The Apprentice off the air in '07, Trump returned to hawking steaks.[note 1]

2016 Presidential Run

Much to the dismay of GOP power-brokers and the delight of comedians everywhere, Trump declared in June 2015 that he is again running for POTUS on the 2016 Republican Presidential ticket. Blunders and confusion mark the Trump campaign, with some even going so far as to suggest that Trump may be suffering from Alzheimer's or senile dementia due to his age;[10] since his father suffered from Alzheimer's before his death in 1999, this conspiracy theory isn't as far-fetched as it sounds...[11]

He immediately received backlash for his racist comments against Mexican immigrants during his announcement speech, which cost him his beauty pageant and other television deals.[12][13][14]

Trust me with donated campaign money

Trump gave $35,000 to an advertising company called Draper-Sterling. Like, from Mad Men.[15] The firm doesn't exist, and this is their address in New Hampshire. So far he has paid $4 million to himself for flying in his own plane, $200K to Trump Tower, and $400K to his campaign headquarters in Palm Beach (his own country club). Most hilarious is $1.8 million paid to the company making/distributing Trump hats, which is owned indirectly by Trump’s son Eric.[16] Suspiciously much money ($6 million estimate) goes to Trump owned companies and Trump's family.[17] Hillary Clinton joked, "What is Trump spending his meager campaign resources on? Why, himself, of course."[18]

It's like Trump is skimming off the top, except his fundraising is so bad that the "top" is the whole thing. It's also unheard-of for a major party convention to be begging for $6 million at the last minute. These should be huge red flags to anyone.[19]

Platform
“”They don’t really know or care what he stands for, only that he’s an extended middle finger at the hated political class and the national GOP. He FIGHTS!... His appeal to them isn’t so much ideological as it is nihilistic.
—Rick Wilson, GOP strategist[20]

Donald Trump has plenty of bad ideas. The people are being conned and misled, as is so characteristic of Trump's schemes. He has a whole AOTD chapter dedicated to making promises, no matter how grand, by drawing on the emotional side of a person. Because this is when you can start working them.[21]

Issue "Solution"
National Security
Trump infamously skipped the military because he had a bone spur, but doesn't remember which foot it was.
 As with most of Trump's positions, the answer is "all of the above". (America can't afford to be the world's policeman. We need to expand the military.[22])
  • Trump thinks we should "close up" the internet to stop ISIS. Just like that! Which likely means, Whatever I don't like will be shut down.[23]
  • In what Tricky Dick on a bender might mistake for a foreign policy strategy, Trump said that the way to defeat ISIS was to "bomb the shit out of them", then send [Exxon]Mobil to suck out all the oil.[24]
  • He advocates for civilian deaths in war, saying we should "take out their families." Further, he's talking the whole family: grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, half-siblings, children, siblings-in-law, and their children. Whoever has a familial connection to the terrorist, he wants to wipe them out, regardless of their culpability.[25][26] (Clue Brick: It's also a war crime under Article 33 of the 4th Geneva Convention.)
  • He'll bring back torture, though he knows it doesn't work, since "they deserve it anyway."[27] He'd also "go much further" than waterboarding suspected terrorists, and thinks that dipping the bullets in pigs' blood before shooting Muslim prisoners is a cool way to deter terrorism, and certainty not a recruiting bonanza.[28]
  • Trump supports the ability of the NSA to be able to collect bulk metadata and has enjoyed himself at the idea of the surveillance of mosques.[29][30]
Border security Hispanic people are lazy and come here to get welfare and commit crime. Also they're stealing all our jobs.[31]
  • The wall Trump proposes to stop illegal Mexican immigrants is a non-starter. Mexico will not pay, and Pew research suggests more Mexicans are returning to Mexico than are emigrating to the United States.[32] Moreover, the majority of US construction workers are undocumented Mexican immigrants. D'oh.[33]
  • He's talked about the materials the wall will be built of. He's talked about putting his name on it. Metaphorically, of course.[34] The wall is about his only concrete idea (pun intended) that he has consistently campaigned on, and he's already waffling on it.
  • He has since doubled down, explicitly calling for a national database that registers and identifies all Muslim Americans. (We really need more Inquisitions.[35][36]) In a rally in Wisconsin, he clarified to Chris Matthews that the register wouldn't apply to wealthy Muslims. That the policy only applies to poorer Muslims might make them more disposed to fight ISIS and help MAGA![37][38] He's like the kid that just read the back of the book before writing a book report, and will literally fight you if you tell him he got the whole general plot wrong.
Foreign policy It's abundantly clear he doesn't know anything about foreign policy.[39]
  • You get a nuke! You get a nuke! Everybody gets a nuke![40]
  • In response to further military provocations by North Korea that apparently failed to alert him to the fact that North Korea probably wanted him to overreact like this, Trump gave a speech at the United Nations on September 19th, 2017 that can be considered quite batshit with some justice, especially considering a singularly odd reference to a mid-70's song by Elton John.[41]
  • Trump has begun to pivot away from his earlier statements[42] ("sorta neutral") about Israel. But that's just evidence of his famous "flexibility."[43][44]
  • Trump also wants to Mafia-ize the U.S.'s national security posture. (It'd be a sad sight if Russia invaded you next week.) The military is oversized because of their own military adventures, and he has the gall to chastise Europe for not chipping in.[45]
  • Trump has hinted he may go to war if Mexico refuses to pay for nonsensical building projects.[46]
  • Trump said, in interviews with The Atlantic[47] and the New York Times,[48] that he would ignore NATO's defense policy if NATO members do not increase defense spending. He has however stopped short of saying the US should actually leave NATO;[49]
  • Trump is also lukewarm on the idea of actually going to war to defend fellow NATO member states, using tiny Montenegro as a particularly surreal example - because, as he put it,"They're very strong people, they're very aggressive people. They may get aggressive and, congratulations, you're in World War Three." [50]
  • Trump does "not so much" trust intelligence (presumably because he doesn't have any of his own), because Iraq.[51]
Economic plan Get rid of NAFTA, NATO, NASA, the NAACP, and anything with an N.[52][53]
  • It's dizzying how quickly Trump has hitched himself to the Brexit campaign (right down to NAFTA's equivalent of "Article 50"). He argued that Hillary Clinton is "100% wrong" because her view of the referendum differed from the outcome, whereas Trump wisely chose the side that "won." Trump is doing the media's work for them by branding Brexit a dry run of what a Trump presidency would be like.[54] He has even gone so far as to call himself "Mr. Brexit", claiming that as the crooked media kept skewering those damn polls for the remoaners, the crooked media is skewering these damn polls over in the US for Clinton.[55]
  • What is his position on jobs? He's going to "bring them back!"[56] Republicans and Democrats have already dropped the ball on helping those most affected by outsourcing; Trump wants to roll back free trade and raise tariffs, but that won't necessarily fix the problem.[57][58] On the contrary, it's a threat to eliminate hundreds and thousands of American jobs.[59] Their paychecks wouldn't even keep up with inflation if they get what they want.[60] But the average voter won't look a whole lot deeper than that free trade is "killing us!"
  • Trump's 18th century economic plan (aka mercantilism) sounds like the work of a businessman who's made strategic use of bankruptcy. [61] It would wreak havoc on the dollar and turn US Treasury Bonds from the safest place to put your money into a risky proposition which investors would stay away from. You can't unring the bell on his plan; just ask any country that ruined their currency long-term for a short-term benefit.[62]
  • The Trump Tax Cuts aren't just right-wing, they're crazy-wing. They've been criticized by conservatives for the huge deficits that would result, and by liberals since the main beneficiaries of his cuts are the very wealthy.[63][64][65]
Environment
"The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."
 Jerry Brown tends to be frugal with his endorsements. Hearing Trump say asinine things regarding climate[66][67] ("there is no drought!"[68]) must have pushed him over the edge.

But when it affects Trump's golf course, then climate change IS real, it IS happening, and urgent action must be taken.[69]

Energy Trump wants to pull out of all climate agreements,[note 2] get rid of environmental regulations, and increase the use of coal (which is not surprising, given his statement that "I have friends that own [coal] mines".[70][71] Standard GOP pandering.[72] He also states that he wants energy independence. He dislikes renewable energy, saying that "wind [turbines] kill all your birds" (a patently false claim — cats kill many times more birds) and that solar power doesn't work well (another absurd statement).[70]

Wait... is he still using "America First"?[73] (He's going with the Third Reich's "worker's party" thing too.[74]) Can't tell if he is intentionally fucking with us, or is actually adopting Goebbels' playbook.[note 3]

Healthcare So, pretty much Obamacare except that the insurance companies can headquarter in whichever states have the weakest consumer protection laws and force their plans on everyone else.[75]

For all of Trump's macho-man image, this is a remarkably pusillanimous plan. Trump's candidacy is based on ditching GOP orthodoxy, but this healthcare plan is a standard Republican nothingburger that is indistinguishable from what a lot of others have offered up. This indicates that Trump does not feel secure about his position in the nomination process, and is trying to signal to the establishment that he can adopt some of their stances, too.[76]

First Amendment It's becoming of a bit of a running gag how Trump keeps threatening to sue people who are critical of him.[77][78][79] (As you may have guessed, Trump rallies tend to be a gold mine for muckraking reporters.) So of course he wants to "open up the libel laws," which would completely undo the First Amendment, making it easier to sue media outlets that dare to criticize him.[80][81]

Since actions speak loudest, especially where Trump is concerned, what has he done in the meantime? Ejected journalists at his rallies simply for being journalists.[82] No person, no problem!

Khizr Khan's claims at the 2016 Democratic National Convention that Trump had not read the US Constitution seemed to be reinforced by Trump's comments that Khan "had no right" to claim that he had not read the Constitution – clearly not reading the First Amendment, giving him the right to free speech.[83]

Is someone protesting in a way Trump doesn't approve of, such as burning an American flag? The solution is simple: lock them up for a year or strip them of their citizenship - although the Supreme Court might take issue with the legality of such a move.[84] Come to think of it, Trump took issue with this strategy until he got elected President.[85]

Abortion It sounds like the main takeaway from Paul Ryan's sit-down was that Trump agreed to nominate pro-lifers to the Supreme Court.[86] In 1999, Trump said that while he hated the concept of abortion, he viewed himself as "very pro-choice."[87]

At that aforementioned event in Wisconsin, Trump floated an idea to punish women who seek abortions. While speaking with MSNBC host Chris Matthews about how he would enforce it, he very quickly reversed the statement to say that he would make the procedure illegal and punish doctors who do so. The best part was when he said that penalties for abortion should not apply to men.[88] Shhhhh... Trump is pointing out the inherent contradiction in the conservative platform.

LGBT rights
A polygamous relationship gone wrong
 While lukewarm on LGBT people getting married and serving openly in the military,[87] in 2000 he concluded that “‘Don't ask, don't tell’ has clearly failed,” and even blasted Pat Buchanan for engaging in the sort of chicanery which Trump is now.[89] Flash-forward:
  • Now he's touting "traditional marriage"—a concept he grudgingly admits is totally alien to him.[90] He has promised to appoint judges to overturn same-sex marriage if need be,[91] despite dismissing traditional marriage as a "dead issue" in the past,[92] and attending the wedding of David Furnish and Elton John.[93]
  • In the Prime Universe, Trump opposed the transgender "bathroom bill," saying trans people should be free to "use the bathroom they feel is appropriate."[94] Mirror!Trump, on the other hand, says it should be up to the states,[95] and is actively working to remove all protection and rights for transgender people.[96]
  • He's stated that he "wouldn't block laws" that permit discrimination based on sexual orientation.[97] But at least he won't behead anybody.[98]
Second Amendment In the course of a single convoluted sentence, he managed to say we shouldn't have guns in classrooms, we should have guns in classrooms, switched back to we shouldn't, and then finally wound up saying we should.[99] The secret service had a word with Trump after he claimed that "the second amendment people" should go out and shoot Hillary Clinton.[100]

Trump and Obama/Hillary at least agree on one point: he is against allowing people on the no-fly list to buy guns, even if they have not been convicted of a crime.[101] Weakness on guns combined with anti-Latino rhetoric could possibly open up Texas, so expect this to be backtracked in a few days or hours.[102]

IRS With Trump cratering in the polls, he suggested that we repeal the Johnson Amendment of 1954, which prohibits tax-exempt organizations (namely churches) from purchasing and running political ads. Nobody seriously expects the IRS to enforce the law, but it's meat that Trump is throwing to the evangelical wing and they're eating up like fools.[103][104] He needs them now, because a lot of them are threatening to sit out the election. Voting for a thrice-married adulterer isn't their thing.[105][106]

Trump wouldn't be able to change the law via executive action (tax law is Congress's domain), but he could order the IRS not to enforce the ban, which would amount to the same thing. That being said, it would be hilarious if American mosques started electing more Muslims to public office.

#Metoo movement
“”People[']s lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused — life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?
—Donald Trump[107]

It has been noted that Trump only complains about lack of due process when it pertains to people that he is supporting. Trump once took out a full-page New York Times advertisement calling for the execution of the Central Park Five,File:Wikipedia's W.svg and continued to call them guilty even long after the accused were fully exonerated based on DNA evidence.[108]

... and that, boys and girls, is how a pro-choice liberal in a shitty toupee stole the Republican Presidential Nomination.

Where did we go right?

Trump accumulates a few nuggets of cocktail party knowledge about political topics (7-11 was an inside job![109]) and sort of freewheels through it while trying to steer the conversation back to the main talking points, which are Building Stuff and Making America Great Again®. On Baltimore, he knows that people torched a Rite-Aid.[110] On climate change, he knows the difference between climate and weather, kind of.[111] Someone back at headquarters didn't know there were two different organizations called "La Raza" and sent out orders to use that defense in the Trump U. case.[112] Trump was endorsed by the National Enquirer and has parroted their "journalism" as fact, like the thing about Cruz's father and JFK.[113] (Also, the only person directly quoted in the Enquirer hit piece is Roger Stone, who also wrote a book on how he thinks LBJ killed JFK and regularly makes appearances on Infowars.) His responses on China actually betray a sort of thought process: what he's advocating sounds like an intentional invocation of Nixon's Madman Theory, and Nixon went to China, so we guess in Trump's head those things are somehow directly related.[114] His wife Melania's speech to the Republican National Convention was supposed to cap the RNC with a sincere defense of her husband. Instead, part of it was grabbed from Michelle Obama.[115]

There's actually considerable biographical evidence that Trump is serious about Building Stuff: sources close to him claim that he was deadly serious about the wall; the reason he likes it is that it gives him a physical thing to focus his imagination on, and he is not generally interested in abstractions.[116][117] As you'll note below, interviewers can get Trump to agree to pretty much anything, as long as they frame it as something novel.[118] He genuinely has no clue how the Executive Branch is run.

Situations keep arising for him to show what kind of leader he would make, and he keeps fumbling them; he lives in the moment and doesn't seem capable of long-term planning. The way he handled the Orlando situation is probably the best example of this.[119][120][121][122][123] Any credible Republican would spit-roast Clinton over the e-mail server and coast to the White House. Trump, instead, will posit that Bill had a bathroom quickie with Coney while the pair of them giggled about how they faked the moon landing and poisoned the populace with fluoride.[124][125] Any legitimate criticism of Clinton just gets lumped in with his never-ending miasma of conspiracy theory horseshit ("people are talking about" and "I'm just asking").

Adults in the room

Trump's "short list" for vice president included Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Newt Gingrich, Ivanka Trump,[No, not The Onion] Joni Ernst, Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, Joe Scarborough, and Jan Brewer. On July 15, he announced that Governor Mike Pence of Indiana would be the nominee.[126][127][128][129][130]

Meanwhile he's been assembling a team of the worst politicians you can imagine. Corrupt shit-bags like Chris Christie and Newt Gingrich, ratfuckers like Roger Stone,[131] and now Rick Scott[132]—though really none of these people made it to the White House.

Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind

Bircher tactics work. If this election is a litmus test, then the entire Republican party failed it.[133] And that really gets to the heart of the problem: The "Silent Majority" has always held these beliefs under the surface. They've not been very politically active; they're too busy hating the world for changing to even bother voting. But now, Trump has re-activated that base. This is right in Trump's own wheelhouse anyway. People forget that Trump joined the Reform Party back in 1999.[134]

So now, left with no Bush or Cruz, they've swallowed hard and endorsed Trump. But you can tell their endorsements are half-hearted. Trump might be a big player in New York real estate, but he's not a team player—the dressage crowd who somehow manage all to be related to one another (yep, even Obama is related to some of our famous political leaders). Adding to that, this is a guy who flaunts his wealth like someone who just won the lottery and has a gold-plated stroller for his kid. It's taking everything the party holds dear—capitalism, family values—and turning it into a reality TV joke.

It was expected to have down-ticket effects that the GOP are not happy with. Not only was Trump capable of fumbling the presidency right into Clinton's hands, he was thought to cost the GOP significantly in the legislature. Polls had Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson getting creamed by Russ Feingold in no small part because Johnson can't step out of the shadow of Trump.[135] And Trump's poisoning of the GOP won't stop after the election. Nobody knows how Paul Ryan is going to rebuild his image after an hour or more of accumulated footage where he weakly endorses Trump while simultaneously disavowing everything he says. And Christie... wow. Where to even start? He went from a contender for the White House to the guy who fetches McDonald's[136] for the blowhard who claims he saw radical Muslims in Christie's own state cheering on 9/11.[137]

The party is already fissured, and if enough people voted Trump in, career politicians would have to adopt platforms more in line with Joe Sixpack if they want to be electorally successful. And with Antonin Scalia's death, the stakes were just too high to let the presidency slip away. But when they thought that they're going to lose the presidency—and suffer serious losses in the fall—the party is finally ready to take their medicine. Like a gangrenous leg you must amputate.[138][139][140][141] They are in for a very unpleasant time in Cleveland (As long as everyone is armed, we'll be fine![142][143]), and Trump will run as a zombie, but the party will emerge more-or-less intact.

Some were openly calling for the Republican Party to refuse funding to Trump and give money to other vulnerable candidates instead.[144]

Trump embodies every stereotype the left has tried to stick Republicans with for years. It will be impossible to deny your party is sexist and racist when he is the standard bearer for it. Actually, not impossible. There are plenty who still deny it. Republican talking heads are half-entertaining rumors that Trump, a longtime friend of the Clintons, is actually one of the most successful political double agents ever planted.[145] It's easy to see the appeal of this theory: it's painful for conservatives to admit the party is getting its just deserts for pandering to cretins; they'd rather just pretend that it's due to Hillary's witchcraft.[146]

Stop and frisk

Nowhere was Trump's ineptitude on greater display then in the first debate when Trump argued in support of New York City's Stop-and-Frisk ordinance. In his rambling policy proposal, Trump showed he didn't understand the difference between local, state, and regional issues, and the limits of federal and presidential power. New York City's Stop-and-Frisk law was an anti-gun measure based on the idea that people don't kill people, guns do. Trump vehemently argued in support of this entirely local issue while campaigning for federal office, after having secured the backing of the National Rifle Association.[citation needed]

Then, in an effort to show understanding of African Americans' issues and concerns, Trump made the statement that Obama's hometown of Chicago had 4000 shootings since Obama came to Washington. In fact, Chicago had 4000 shootings in just the past year, and Trump was arguing for federal legislation to disarm law abiding citizens.[citation needed]

Trump's fellow RINO Rudy Giuliani, who evidently advised Trump on these alleged "facts", defended the stupidity while displaying his own total ignorance of America outside the New York media bubble and the New York City political milleu.[citation needed]

The victory parade

After a win that contradicted most pre-election polls, the celebrants include a motley crew of dictators, theocrats, and extremists (horseshoe theory anyone?):[147]

Notes
  1. When asked about the venture, James Levin (former CEO of the Sharper Image) said "we literally sold almost no steaks. If we sold $50,000 of the steaks grand total, I'd be surprised." One food critic described Trump Steaks™ as "edible, but not particularly good." Hardly glowing reviews for a product Trump pitched as "the world's greatest steaks... in every sense of the word." Conan milked it for its seemingly endless comedic value. Just goes to show you, never write a candidate off this side of Arlington Cemetery.
  2. The Paris Climate Accord, for example, was quick for the chopping block.
  3. Don't say that to him though: He once threatened to sue a Vanity Fair reporter for documenting that he kept a book of Adolf Hitler's speeches by his bed at night. Sweet dreams, mein Führer.
    Kascynski, Andrew, "Trump Once Threatened To Sue Over A Report He Owned A Book Of Hitler Speeches", BuzzFeed (Feb. 18, 2016, at 1:22 p.m.).
gollark: Although the limit on request size is, what, 15MBish? I don't know exactly.
gollark: What I think most programs do is just download a single DFPWM file *straight* to the tape, without storing it on disk.
gollark: Try and break it down into its component parts and be specific.
gollark: Do you have some sort of specific question/issue you ran into?
gollark: Probably just use the default value for `dklen`.

References
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  2. Gates, Marie-Elise, "Trump Trademarks “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN”", Trademarkology 5.16.16.
  3. Eric Bradner, "Trump praises 9/11 truther's 'amazing' reputation, Jones shares the love", CNN. Trump calls to expand the surveillance state within seconds of being interviewed, and Alex just keeps washing his balls. Can't think of a better VP for kicking the crazy up a notch. ('"BEWARE THE FICTIONAL OVERLORDS! RALLY BEHIND THE REAL ONES!)
  4. Bankers Dispute Trump's Story of Financial Comeback: Bankers who worked with Trump when he was near bankruptcy say it was not the GOP nominee's deal-making triumph but their intervention that enabled a comeback 7/18/16 at 12:00 AM Reuters.
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  6. Donald Trump Shouts ‘F Word’ Multiple Times In Las Vegas Speech, Wonkette
  7. He opposes gay marriage because of new trends in golf putter preference., HuffPo.
  8. Tea Partiers Rallying in DC Praise Donald Trump's Birther Stance, TPM
  9. Trump: Bill Ayers Wrote Obama's Book, TPM. Remember when being a Birther was basically the peak of crazy in political discussions? Times have changed, man.
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  13. "Univision Drops Miss USA Pageant After Donald Trump's Comments About Mexicans : People.com". PEOPLE.com.
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  15. Federal Election Commission, itemized disbursements for Donald J. Trump For President, Inc. He'd better turn those hats upside-down and start asking for handouts...
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  26. Tom LoBianco, "Donald Trump on terrorists: 'Take out their families'", CNN.
  27. Ben Jacobs, "Donald Trump on waterboarding: 'Even if it doesn't work they deserve it'", The Guardian. Caedite eos! Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius!File:Wikipedia's W.svg
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  29. Where Do the Presidential Wannabes Stand on the Patriot Act? by Ken McIntyre On (5/22/15 at 1:29 PM) Newsweek.
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  37. Sayare, Scott, "http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/05/europe-counterterrorism-failure-khaled-kelkal/481908/", Atlantic 5.9.16. Interestingly, a ban might actually make another Orlando more likely, as many Muslims in the U.S. will rightly feel like they've been targeted, and that's one of the causes of radicalization. For the alt-right, that's the point.
  38. "Trump says he'd allow 'rich Muslims' to enter U.S.". msn.com. Retrieved on 4 August 2016.
  39. Fisher, Max, "We painstakingly annotated Donald Trump's strange and revealing foreign policy interview", Vox (9/4/15, 12:34 p.m. ET).
  40. Hellman, Jessie, "Trump Would Consider Letting Japan and South Korea Build Nuclear Arsenals, The Hill (3/26/.16, 03:24 pm). Donald handing out nukes like a pedophile handing out candy to kids. Particularly silly in that Japan already has all the technology and know-how to produce both a fission bomb and deliver it, but don't want to, for reasons that are obvious to anybody who's studied history.
  41. Washington Post, "Why Trump’s threat to ‘totally destroy’ North Korea is extraordinary — even for him"
  42. Hensch, Mark, "Trump: I’ll be ‘neutral’ on Israel and Palestine", The Hill (2/17/16, 09:41 pm). Well, that's refreshing to hear...
  43. "Trump: Israeli Settlement Construction in West Bank Should 'Keep Going'", Haaretz (6/24/16 at 9:13pm IDT). −WHAT? But I thought he was going to use his deal-closing skills to negotiate!
  44. "Trump Would Support Israeli Annexation of Parts of West Bank, Says Adviser", Haaretz (6/23/16 at9:24 PM IDT). Perhaps Israel will be offered more and bigger walls. That'll surely fix it right up.
  45. Collinson, Stephen, "5 candidates make closing arguments on CNN", CNN (Updated 3/22/16 8:45 AM ET). The US leaving NATO would be like the Pope quitting Catholicism.
  46. "Mexican media: Trump threatens war with Mexico to collect border wall payment". Fusion. Because crashing the Mexican economy is a good way to decrease illegal immigration into America.
  47. Calamur, Krishnadev. "Donald Trump's NATO Remarks Stuns U.S. Allies". theatlantic.com. Retrieved on 4 August 2016.
  48. Sanger, David E. (21 July 2016). "Envisioning Donald Trump’s Foreign Policy: The U.S. Steps Back". Retrieved on 4 August 2016 – via NYTimes.com.
  49. "What's Trump's Position on NATO?". The Wire (FactCheck.org). May 11, 2016.
  50. 'Stupid statements' - Trump WW3 jibe stuns Montenegro, bbc.co.uk, July 18th, 2018
  51. "#LoserDonald: I Don’t Trust US Intelligence". August 17, 2016. The Young Turks, via YouTube.
  52. Tani, Maxwell, "'I don't mean just a little bit better': Donald Trump threatens to leave NAFTA if elected", Business Insider 6.29.16.
  53. Pindell, James, "Trump loves NASA, but backs privatization of outer space", Boston Globe 1.1/11/15.
  54. Savanskry, Rebecca, "Trump hits Clinton for attacks after '100% wrong' Brexit prediction", The Hill (6/26/16 at 08:13 am).
  55. McCarthy, Tom (August 18, 2016). "Trump says he'll be known as 'Mr Brexit' despite poor poll showing – politics live". The Guardian.
  56. Drezner, Daniel D., "Donald Trump’s Big Lie about the global economy", WaPo 8.3.15. It's the establishment versus the working class. The Republicans have catered to low-income voters for quite a while now, and those are the main demographics who are severely affected by free trade. That demographic ("small business") has been voting against their own interest by sending their jobs overseas.
  57. Krugman, Paul, "Trade, Labor, and Politics", NYT 3.28.16. Republicans oppose trade because protectionism is the only way they know how to deal with the fact that it creates losers as well as winners, whereas believers in a strong safety net can take all sorts of other measures to protect workers without bringing down the country as a whole.
  58. McKee, Guian, "This is what Trump and Sanders Get Wrong About Free Trade", WaPo 5.17.16.
  59. Tankersley, Jim, "Donald Trump’s trade war could kill millions of U.S. jobs", WaPo 3.25.16.
  60. Byrnes, Jesse, "Trump: 'Who the hell cares if there's a trade war?'", The Hill (May 19, 2016, 10:07 pm). Republicans will be all for free trade when their "low low prices" increase by 50% at Wal-Mart.
  61. Kessler, Glenn, "Donald Trump's Unusual Plan to Lower the National Debt: Sell Off $16 Tril in Assets", WaPo 4.2.16. If it works for wines, steaks, and luxury hotels, of course it will work for foreign policy!
  62. Barro, Josh, "Donald Trump is floating an insane idea that would tank the American economy", Business Insider (5/6/16, 11:59 AM).
  63. MJ Lee and Sara Murray, "Donald Trump Slashes Taxes on the Poor — and the Wealthy", CNN (Updated 0/29/15, 11:39 AM ET). Tax Policy Center: "On the corporate side the tax cut is very large. On the individual side it's very large. There just aren't enough tax breaks out there to make this work."
  64. "Donald Trump's false claim that his tax plan wouldn't increase the deficit" Politifact.com. The ideology of "spend more, tax less, repay debt!" doesn't exist because mathematically it's nonsense.
  65. "How the candidates' tax plans will affect you, in 4 charts" Vox.com
  66. Ryan Kowonowski, "It Snowed Once And Other Things Donald Trump Thinks Prove Global Warming Is A Hoax" ThinkProgress. Global warming is just Mexican climate hopping our border. We need to build a climate wall.
  67. Page, Samantha, "Sanders Blasts Trump on Weird Climate Change Claim", ThinkProgress (1/5/16 1:08 pm ST). Trump is “not a believer” in man-made climate change, an issue he dismisses as something “created by and for the Chinese.” Ahhh, America. Where you've got so much freedom, science is an opinion.
  68. Jill Colvin and Ellen Knickmeyer, "Trump tells California ‘there is no drought’" , WaPo 5.27.16. No shit, it was sucked dry by the very factory farms that are complaining now.
  69. Schreckinger, Ben, "Trump acknowledges climate change — at his golf course", Politico. (05/23/16 05:35 AM EDT) Trump applied to build a wall to prevent coastal erosion at his Trump International Golf Links seaside golf resort in Ireland — and has explicitly cited risks posed by climate change in his application.
  70. "Trump: Wind power ‘kills all your birds’". The Hill. 2016-08-02. Retrieved 2016-10-03.
  71. Ashley Parker and Coral Davenport, "Donald Trump’s Energy Plan: More Fossil Fuels and Fewer Rules", NYT 5.26.16. Ironically, GOP energy policy doesn't benefit coal anymore. The only way to benefit coal is to provide them subsidies. The rate of return on coal is terrible now.
  72. Koenig, David, "AP FACT CHECK: Trump's vow to create Appalachian coal jobs", The Big Story (5/5/16 at 3:31 PM EDT).
  73. Timothy Cama and Devin Henry, "Overnight Energy: Trump outlines 'America First' energy plan in North Dakota", The Hill (05/26/16 05:54 PM EDT).
  74. Savransky, Rebecca, "Trump: My GOP will be a 'worker's party'", The Hill (May 26, 2016, 08:59 am).
  75. "Healthcare Reform". donaldjtrump.com.
  76. Demko, Paul, "Who is Advising Donald Trump on Health Care?", Politico (02/20/16 11:43 AM EST).
  77. "For Donald Trump, ‘Get ’Em Out’ Is the New ‘You’re Fired’". The New York Times. 14 March 2016.
  78. Eugene Scott, CNN (12 February 2016). "Donald Trump threatens to sue Ted Cruz". CNN.
  79. "Donald Trump Promises To Sue The Media For Negative Stories About Him If He's Elected President". Media Matters for America. February 26, 2016.
  80. River Clegg (2 March 2016). "Libel Law, Trump-Style". The New Yorker.
  81. Jose A. DelReal (29 February 2016). "Trump, taking aim at the press, vows again to ‘open libel laws’". Washington Post.
  82. South Florida Sun-Sentinel (14 March 2016). "Mayo: My choice at Trump rally - Leave or go to jail". Sun-Sentinel.com.
  83. Lopez, German (July 31, 2016). "Donald Trump proves he hasn't read the Constitution in statement claiming he has". Vox.
  84. Trump suggests loss of citizenship or jail for those who burn U.S. flags, Washington Post
  85. Trump had a different take on flag burning when he visited David Letterman last year, Washington Post
  86. Associated Press, "Paul Ryan's Endorsement of Donald Trump Comes With Caveats", Fortune (6/3/16 at 3:53 AM EDT).
  87. "Trump in 1999: 'I am Very Pro-Choice'". Meet The Press.
  88. Gladu, Alex, "Donald Trump's Abortion Punishments Don't Include Men For Whatever Misogynistic Reason", Bustle 3.30.16. I read The Handmaid's Tale and I thought it was a great blueprint for America.
  89. "READ: Donald Trump's Advocate Interview Where He Defends Gays, Mexicans". advocate.com. 28 September 2015. Retrieved on 26 June 2016. DT "Buchanan actually said gay people had chosen 'Satan and suicide.' Now he says he welcomes gay people into his campaign. The guy is a hypocrite."
  90. Edwards, David, "CNN host calls out Donald Trump: ‘What’s traditional about being married three times?’", Raw Story (6/28/15 at 09:37 ET).
  91. Duffy, Nick, "Trump says he’d consider overturning same-sex marriage in shock U-turn". pinknews.co.uk. Retrieved on 26 June 2016.
  92. Duffy, Nick, "Donald Trump admits opposing equal marriage is ‘dead issue’". pinknews.co.uk. Retrieved on 26 June 2016.
  93. McCormick, Joesph Patrick, "Donald Trump celebrated Elton John’s marriage in 2005". pinknews.co.uk. Retrieved on 26 June 2016. (Yes, technically this was a civil partnership and not a marriage, but Trump's easiness using the word "marriage" referring to it clearly indicates that he wasn't too bothered.)
  94. Parker, Ashley, "Donald Trump Says Transgender People Should Use the Bathroom They Want". The New York Times. 21 April 2016. Retrieved on 26 June 2016.
  95. Duffy, Nick, "Donald Trump reverses his ‘support’ for transgender rights". pinknews.co.uk. Retrieved on 26 June 2016.
  97. Duffy, Nick, "Donald Trump ‘wouldn’t block’ law to permit homophobic discrimination". pinknews.co.uk. Retrieved on 26 June 2016.
  98. McCormick, Joseph Patrick, "Donald Trump says he supports ‘the gays’ at a rally – ‘the gays’ respond perfectly". pinknews.co.uk. Retrieved on 26 June 2016. DT: "Ask the gays what they think and what they do, in, not only Saudi Arabia, but many of these countries, and then you tell me – who's your friend, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton?"
  99. Wolf, Leon H., "Trump: I’m not Advocating for Guns in Classrooms, I’m just Advocating for Guns in Classrooms Sometimes", RedState (5/22/16 at 2:26 pm).
  100. Buncombe, Andrew (August 11, 2016). "Secret Service 'talks to Donald Trump' camp after Second Amendment comments about Hillary Clinton". The Independent.
  101. MacNeal, Caitlin, "NRA Says It's Willing To Meet With Trump About Guns And The No-Fly List", TPM (6/15/16, 1:32 PM EDT).
  102. Kapur, Sahil, "Trump Walks Back Remarks on Guns at Orlando Club After NRA Disagrees", Bloomberg (6/20/16 at 10:09 AM PDT).
  103. Michelle Boorstein and Julie Zauzmer, "Thrilling Christian conservative audience, Trump vows to lift ban on politicking, appoint antiabortion judges", WaPo (6/22/16 at 2:25 PM). When he panders, he panders hard. This is funny because it reads like Trump scrambling to bring in voters who ordinarily be locked-up in November.
  104. Gettys, Travis, "Trump panders to evangelical leaders by promising to force store clerks to say ‘Merry Christmas’", Raw Story (6/21/16 at 13:48 ET).
  105. Kelley, Marty, "LOL Hillary Clinton Might Beat Donald Trump In Utah", Wonkette (6/13/16 at 3:01pm).
  106. Guerra, Daniel, "Actually, Most Evangelicals Don’t Vote Trump", Christianity Today 5.28.16. Turns out there are people who identify as evangelical and those who go to church weekly. The latter went for Cruz.
  107. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/962348831789797381?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
  108. President Trump Complains, Laughably, About 'Due Process' by Benjamin Hart (February 10, 2018 11:52 am) New York Magazine.
  109. Engel, Pamela, "Donald Trump mistakenly invokes '7-Eleven' when talking about 9/11 terror attacks", Business Insider (8/19/16 at 9:30 AM ).
  110. "A transcript of Donald Trump’s meeting with The Washington Post editorial board", WaPo 3/21/16
  111. Romm, Joe, "Trump Even Gets Climate Denial Wrong", ThinkProgress Mar 24, 2016 8:00 am
  112. Trudo, Hannah, "Trump escalates attack on 'Mexican' judge", Politico (6/02/16 10:05 PM EDT, updated 06/02/16 11:27 PM EDT). It's amazing these people manage to tie their shoes in the morning.
  113. Louis Jacobson and Linda Qiu"Donald Trump's Pants on Fire claim linking Ted Cruz's father and JFK assassination", Politifact (5/3/16 at 5:59 p.m.).
  114. Avlon, John, "Donald Trump Is Running for Richard Nixon’s Third Term", Daily Beast (02.14.16 9:04 PM ET).
  115. "Lawrence O'Donnell: Portions of Melania Trump's RNC 'pure plagiarism'", MSNBC 7.19.16. O'Donnell: "There is no university in America that wouldn't consider this plagiarism." Not at Trump University. That's A+ work right there!
  116. McAfee, Tierney, "Two Sides to Trump: His Friends and Foes Speak Out", People (03/30/2016 at 04:35 PM EDT).
  117. Laughland, Oliver, "Ex-Trump workers describe egocentric micromanager: 'Donald loves Donald'", The Guardian (3/14/16 15.01 EDT).
  118. Hugh Hewitt and Donald Trump talk 2016. DT: "I think I might be inclined to do that. I don’t think that’s that unusual, though. That’s been done before, hasn’t it, Hugh? (No.) ... Yeah, no, I like that idea very much." No spine or judgement whatsoever.
  119. Tani, Maxwell, "Donald Trump: 'I don’t want congrats' for 'being right on radical Islamic terrorism,' but I do 'appreciate' it", Business Insider (6/12/16 at 1:06 PM).
  120. Huppke, Rex, "Donald Trump makes 'tragic situation worse'", Guardian (6.14.16 at 1:18pm.) Nailed it! He sounds unhinged even with a teleprompter.
  121. Kevin Cirilli, Michael C. Bender, and Jennifer Jacobs, "Trump Holding Meeting With Advisers to Reassess Strategy", Bloomberg (6/20/16 at 2:00 AM PDT). Buried in this piece is Trump mistakenly uploading the wrong speech into his teleprompter.
  122. Mascaro, Lisa, "Donald Trump, minus teleprompter, is back ", LA Times (6/14/16 at 6:31 p.m.). Screw the nerds, let's go back to what's fun!
  123. Caldwell, Leigh Ann, "After Orlando, Republican Party Unity Behind Trump Grows More Elusive", NBC (6/15/16 at 10:50 am ET). Republican senators set a new record for “being late to meetings” or gluing cellphones to their ears as they hurry past.
  124. Jacobs, Ben, "Trump issues statement on Clinton that goes full conspiracy theory on lack of charges", Twitter (7/5/16 at 12:31 PM). The head of the FBI just railed on my opponent for 15 minutes? Better start talking about how untrustworthy the FBI is...
  125. Chason, Rachel, "House Republican sides with Comey over Trump on Clinton emails", CNN (Updated 7/5/16 at 11:12 PM).
  126. Lasher, Megan, "Eric Trump Says His Sister’s ‘Looks’ Qualify Her for Vice Presidency", TIME 7.7.16.
  127. Collins, Eliza, "Trump: I consult myself on foreign policy", Politico (03/16/16 08:24 AM EDT).
  128. Kevin Cirilli and Jennifer Jacobs, "The Ohio governor's advisers say he remains uninterested in the position", Bloomberg (5/10/16 at 2:00 PM).
  129. Graham, David A., "The Donald Trump Veepstakes: A Cheat Sheet", Atlantic 7.15.16.
  130. "Donald Trump introduces Mike Pence as VP. But first, a few words about Donald Trump". yahoo.com. Retrieved on 4 August 2016.
  131. Osnos, Evan, "Trump’s Convention Strategy: “The Fix Is In”", New Yorker 4.8.16. Trump's intolerance toward journalist critics also extends towards delegates who don't support him for the nomination. His top advisor, Roger Stone, threatened to release the personal information of all disloyal delegates.
  132. Schultz, Randy, "Rick Scott on Donald Trump's ticket? Folks, he's already there", Miami Sun-Sentinel (2/26/16 8:36 PM).
  133. Janet Allon, "Dick Cheney sees threat to his title of most evil living Republican", AlterNet. (GOP:' "You need to be scared of Islamists, no one is doing anything!" Trump: "LET'S DO SOMETHING ABOUT MUSLIMS!" GOP: "What?? ZOMG no, what are you talking about?")
  134. "Trump officially joins Reform Party", CNN 10.25.99.
  135. Breshnahan, Josh, "Vulnerable GOP senators duck and cover from Trump", Politico (05/04/16 05:25 PM EDT).
  136. Kruger, Katherine, "Report: Trump Uses Chris Christie As ‘Manservant’ To Fetch His McDonald’s", TPM (6/13/16, 12:51 PM EDT).
  137. Mueller, Mark, "Some Jersey City Muslims did celebrate 9/11, cop and residents say", NJ.com (12/21/15 at 6:00 AM, updated 12/22/15 at 9:27 PM). It's a miracle. And the dozens shall become thousands!
  138. Tau, Byron, "George Will to Leave Republican Party Over Donald Trump’s Impending Nomination", WSJ (6/25/16 11:26 pm ET ). The George Will? DT: Bye, cuck!
  139. O'Keefe, Ed, "Dozens of GOP delegates launch new push to halt Donald Trump", WaPo 6.17.16. This is an interesting race tonight. 75% for Hillary Clinton, 22% for Mitt Romney, and we're actually polling a solid 3% for "Donald Trump, Fuck the World." This is fascinating."
  140. Isenstadt, Alex, "Hardly anybody wants to speak at Trump's convention", Politico (06/27/16 05:10 AM EDT).
  141. Patrick Healy and Ashley Parker, "Run on a Ticket With Donald Trump? No, Thanks, Many Republicans Say", NYT 4.30.16.
  142. Savransky, Rebecca, "Cleveland looking to buy riot gear for Republican convention", The Hill (March 03, 2016, 07:26 pm).
  143. Ferguson, David, "Trump-loving delegate announces he’ll be strapped with a 9mm Glock at RNC in Cleveland", Raw Story (7/1/16 at 10:34 ET ).
  144. "Republican letter urges party to cut Trump's funding". BBC News.
  145. Will, George, "Is Donald Trump a Democratic secret agent?", BBC. Donald trump is literally Hillary Clinton in a fat suit. Have you ever seen them in the same room since the election started?
  146. Lewis, Hunter, "What Populism Is And Isn't", Mises Daily 12.31.15 (Waaaah! Now the media is redefining populism as Trumpism! That's OUR word!)
  147. Islamist extremists celebrate Trump’s election win by Ishaan Tharoor (November 9 at 2:47 PM) The Washington Post.
  148. Nicole Gaouette, Elise Labott and Angela Dewan, Russia's Putin, others pleased as Trump win shocks world, CNN
  149. Feliks Garcia, Ku Klux Klan announces Donald Trump victory parade as white supremacists celebrate nationwide, The Independent
  150. Ishaan Tharoor, Islamist extremists celebrate Trump’s election win, The Washington Post
  151. Video, Europe's far-right celebrates Trump victory, Reuters
  152. ‘The era of the Palestinian state is over’ — Israeli right celebrates Trump win Mondoweiss
  153. Philippines' Duterte says to stop quarrels with U.S. after Trump win (Wed Nov 9, 2016 | 2:52pm EST) Reuters.
  154. Trump, Turkey's Erdogan discuss boosting ties, fighting terrorism: sources (Wed Nov 9, 2016 | 4:07pm EST) Reuters.
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