IN TWO DEPOSITIONS taken over the last three months, Donald Trump acknowledged under oath that he had no role in selecting Trump University’s instructors, despite claiming in a promotional video that they “are all people that are handpicked by me.”
Trump University, a now-defunct sales ploy that promised to teach Donald Trump’s real estate “secrets” to enrollees and make them rich in the process, has become a flashpoint in the Republican presidential primary debates. In last night’s debate in Detroit, for instance, Sen. Marco Rubio lit into Donald Trump over the “handpicked” instructors. Trump retorted with a fabrication, claiming that the Better Business Bureau had given Trump University an A rating. As Rubio pointed out in the exchange, the most recent rating was a D minus.
A critical part of Trump University’s sales pitch to prospective students was the claim that Donald Trump personally selected the program’s instructors — a claim repeated over and over in the company’s marketing literature. Trump University’s direct mail advertising included letters with Trump’s signature on them that claimed that Trump University students would receive guidance from Trump’s “handpicked instructors and mentors.”
At live events, Trump University instructors recited speeches from a company-authorized script that read, in part, “I remember one time Mr. Trump said to us over dinner.” In a memorandum to the court submitted just one week ago, Trump University’s attorneys reference “instructors, who were selected based on Mr. Trump’s criteria and input.” The mantra about Trump’s “handpicked instructors” was a critical part of the recruitment strategy for a get-rich-quick scheme whose appeal centered entirely on Donald Trump’s personal reputation as a real estate business virtuoso.
But in a brief filed yesterday in a class-action lawsuit, attorneys representing thousands of former students revealed that in a video recorded deposition, Trump “confessed under oath that he did not handpick a single TU live events instructor.” Trump further “acknowledged that other instructors’ presentations showed they lied to students about their connections to him.”
Not only did Trump have nothing to do with selecting instructors, “he personally did nothing to confirm their purported qualifications” and “could not identify a single live events instructor or mentor by name or pick one out of a photo lineup,” according to the brief. (For his part, Trump claimed that the reason he never personally interviewed even his top instructors was that he had heard that the school was doing well, and thus deemed it unnecessary.)
Many of the “handpicked” instructors have testified that they have never met Trump. In the depositions, Trump was unable to even affirm whether his instructors had ever bought or sold real estate before.
A typical passage from the deposition transcript reads as follows:
Q: Chris Goff. Do you know if he was qualified to be an instructor?
A: Okay. No, I don’t.
Q: Qualified to be a mentor?
A: I don’t know.
Q: Steve Goff, do you know if he was qualified to be an instructor?
A: I don’t know who they are.
Q: Do you know if he was qualified to be a mentor?
A: I don’t know who they are.
Q: James Harris, do you know if he was qualified to be an instructor?
A: I don’t know who it is.
Q: So that’s a no?
(Reporter seeks clarification.)
A: I don’t know who he is.
Q: And therefore you don’t know if he was qualified to be an instructor?
A: I don’t know.
Q: Okay. So you don’t know.
A: I don’t know the people. I wasn’t running it. I don’t know the people.
The brief, filed in federal district court in San Diego, further asserts that Donald Trump admitted under oath that he retains no real estate techniques beyond what has been published in his books. In other words, students who paid as much as $60,000 to Trump University over the course of a year could have gotten the exact same information through a $10 book purchased on Amazon.
In 2010, Trump University changed its name to “Trump Entrepreneur Initiative,” five years after the New York State Education Department warned the company that its use of the “university” moniker without an NYSED license was unlawful. In Trump’s deposition, he admitted to having known that the company was out of compliance with the law even as it continued to operate under the “Trump University” brand name, presenting itself as an elite educational institution on par with the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
The new brief adds to the abundance of evidence that Trump University was, essentially, a high-pressure sales racket aimed at bilking gullible people, many of them senior citizens, out of tens of thousands of dollars apiece. The original complaint in the suit describes its practices in detail:
- Students in the program’s introductory three-day seminar were told to use their break times to double or even quadruple their credit card limits and were asked to fill out financial statements so they’d be prepared to finance lucrative real estate transactions. Instructors then used those higher credit limits and financial information to pressure the students into enrolling in Trump University’s $34,995 Gold Program.
- Trump University sold “one year apprenticeship” programs for $1,495 that were in actuality a three-day workshop and a 1-800 number to a “client advisor.”
- Trump University assigned “mentors” to students who, once paid, would rarely call the students back and often advised students to invest in deals that the mentors had financial stakes in.
- Trump University taught students to engage in practices that are illegal in some states, such as placing “bandit signs” on the sides of roads — signs that resemble official road hazard signs but read, “WE BUY HOUSES, 323-555-5555.”
- Students were routinely stiffed on refunds that were promised under Trump University’s “money-back guarantee.”
Trump has an army of skeletons in his multiple closets and this is just a small marginal one.
All of those so-called candidates are candidates vetted by oligarchic ruling elite. But Trump case needs special care and explanation.
Since, name “Trump” is a commercial brand it should be excluded from political discourse as I did below by giving him a nickname so he won’t claim copyright.
Trump, an quintessential oligarch himself, famous for marrying supermodels and losing half of his Dad’s fortune, is watching too much TV featuring himself as a Flaccid Clown of incompetence and is too damn to know it.But not as stupid or desperate as his average voter.
The MSM long before elections virtually created this Flaccid Clown TV persona.
This Flaccid Clown made himself a mirror of a fascist American society that through him can bask in its ugliness, ignorance and narcissism of exceptional mediocrity of Trumpism.
This Flaccid Clown has qualities of a self-invented cult leader, characterized by extreme bullying, intimidation, threats and/or violence and disregard to humanity reaching fair beyond any acceptable human conduct. He is a phony opportunist, a sewage excretion of his personal puny psychopathic insecurities for profit and fame with no other program, idea or thought behind it.
He did not appear on the political stage accidentally, he has his role to play and he is playing it well so far, whatever establishment wants him to play. These are political puppets, stooges, chicken hawks, and front-men of the establishment who are scared, afraid that their services will no longer be needed by true ruling elite who run this abhorrent regime for about 240 years..
This Flaccid Clown is an artificial phenomenon. He is a media phenomenon “hired by a establishment ”, to tell establishment “You are fired” in a group psychotic episode of surrealistic transference of a cartoon character of reality show into empty desperate lives of those rejected by ruling elite, unable to effectively serve it or submit to power and hence forcefully alienated from delusions of American Serf Dream. He is uploaded by his oligarchic handlers, with misconceived populist ideas that he has no interest in, no understanding of or any intention or intellectual capability to follow.
The establishment has all the bullets, civil, criminal, political, economic, tax evasion, socio-sexual, financial to kill Trump candidacy in a week, even to indict him. Few front pages with this Flaccid Clown portrayed as a pariah, Russian spy, a commie, baby killer, thief, Antichrist, terrorist supporter, with no facts but innuendos would unravel his shallow support among desperate, scared, confused, blind, revenge seeking mob who now supports and idolizes him regardless what nonsense he is uttering. All bullets are ready to fire unless he submits and betrays his following, does what he is hired to do.
What he is actually used by the Oligarchic establishment that supports him so far (Christie, establishment bully, is first one to admit it) for is to galvanize desperate public, who finds his ignorance appealing and refreshing on such a calcified political stage of puppetry as well as moves those who see in him a danger of fascist narcissistic megalomaniac taking power. All the political commotion is aimed to insidiously entice Americans all to rush to voting booths thinking that they could make any slightest difference in their own lives and life of the nation by supporting or denouncing a puppet of the ruling elite.
Unfortunately, this time as well, millions of irrational, desperate and helpless in their daily lives electoral zombies, under a spell of exciting political masquerade, are aligning themselves with an anointed winner of a popularity/beauty contest, in a delusional feat of transference of a fraction of elite’s power to themselves just for a second of a thrill of power. And they will continue to authorize their own suicide mission, since even baseless, continually disproved hope of any chance of influencing of the political realm via means of begging is the last thing that dies.
What’s really shocking but beyond the political sensitivity level of Americans is a fact he is yet to formulate any coherent policy he would like to implement and that’s the plan, so he, if anointed by the establishment will be able to backpedal, deny or ignore his utterances, leaving gullible crowd betrayed yet again.
Most of Americans, not unlike a cargo cult, are impatient, nervous, excited and scared sitting and waiting before an impregnable curtain of political manipulation of the ruling elite, turning to magic, superstition, appeasement or begging for mercy or praying for a caprice of good will to save them, while blatantly abandoning their unalienable rights to self-determination and democratic system of people’s rule, based on equality in the law, and one voter one vote principle.
May be the elites will conclude that if mob wants this Flaccid Clown, they will get a them this Flaccid Clown as a puppet figure sitting in oval office replica in Hollywood following, watching himself. It is old principle of rulers: “Vox Populi Vox Dei” that was originally applied in the totalitarian Roman Imperial regime during imperial games at Circus Maximum and Coliseum as a pressure valve release for unruly, enraged of cronyism, and fixed, unfair rules of aristocracy, roman proletariat i.e. people with no power, to pacify them cheaply and prevent costly riots and killing expenses.
Vox Animali, Vox Inferi.
As P.T. Barnum said so well “there’s a sucker born every minute”.
Someone commented, “The lawsuit in question and the 3 students who are involved, filled out questionnaires rating Trump’s university. They all gave it 5 out of 5 stars and commented on how good the school was.” To “proove” that was a “one sided” POV.
Ah, um, what?
This is just from one article at marketwatch.com:
People really have to some research in this era of massive amount of opinion “blogs”.
Certainly, this post was a narrow one, about a transcript of a Donald Trump deposition, and not meant to cover everything about the “University” or Trump himself.
But it’s point was made. Trump didn’t know what he was talking about when tried to laugh of any “lawsuit.”
I am shocked! Shocked! That fraud exists in any Capitalistic Institution! Shocked!
Many people simply believe in “Capitalism”, put their trust in it, expect good things from it, that most of the players are above board… Which is okay, except when it is not okay.
Crooks and Liars and Criminals abound throughout society, and the saddest things about US is the majority belief that only “Criminals” commit crimes. That is, “Criminals” are a class of people — robbers, theives, drug pushers, killers, etc., and it is “They” who commit crimes.
Yeah, sure, such people exist. But they are few in number compared to the vast majority of those who do not abide by the law and are therefore criminals just as the “thugs” using violence to get what they whant.
These “other criminals” are fraudulent businesses. From the fisherman selling low end fish as higher end fish — just had a big case of this in New England; to the myriad of everyday service business scammers selling unneeded services, to exterminators secretly placing rat droppings in your cupboards, to Yuge Banks with predatory loan strategies.
Donald Trump may or may not have know what was going on in his “University,” but it is so obvious that it was “trumped up beyond” what was actually provided by it. A scam. But most advertising and endorsements are just “trumped up words” saying “how good services/products” are with zero facts behind them.
Scams are half of what Capitalism is. From the Robber Baron days to watering down booze or adding too much cellulose to baby formula. Fraud is systemic to Capitalism.
The problem is many-fold.
Major Conservative Billionaires do this all the time. The GOP “Leadership” are complicate in this (due to being bought off). The Media are too worried about “ratings” to say anything about it (or are actually ignorant of it). The “Pundocracy” really are ignorant of it (from David Brooks to Nicholas Kristof to George Will to Charles Krauthammer, ET. AL. — or are just a bunch of frauds themselves).
Look, how do you know if someone is telling the truth or not?
First, you yourself have first hand knowledge of the facts. E.g. “You were there.”
Second, the person has a long record of being right which can be verified over time or by third-parties not related.
That’s it.
So, believe what you want to believe… and you are a Conservative or a Libertarian or a blind Liberal. (Not all Liberals are are blind, however disbelieving of that you may be — but none of the others mentioned will ever believe that for they will never do any research about it and only listen to the fear-mongers the blindly and without reason, “trust”.)
(A long winded post that deviated from it’s point several times I am sure…)
But the last point is this: Fraud and Scams proliferate only due to an uneducated populous. that blindly believes in Capitalism as some kind of perfect institution but for the “Liberals” and other “Criminals”.
Well, Anybody who though something other than utter fraud was in store for them at a school called Trump “University” probably deserves what they got. That Drumpf knows how to work a crowd.
Ok, Obama said there were 57 States…and Corps was pronounced “corpse.” Why is his eloquence omitted from the debate?
So Obama’s alleged ineloquence somehow makes Trump’s fleecing of his marks and his general criminality okay then? This ain’t a “debate,” dude. The article was specifically about Trump “University” and Trump’s complicity in the fraud surrounding it.
i am left of left. BUT… i want to mention support of Donald Trump of Hillary Clinton for the following reason
here it is. stop. look. listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5rKtLGGtoc
i know something you don’t know and i would not offer support to the Donald unless i had information you are not familiar with.
sincerely.
I’m not gonna follow your link, so in a few words describe this secret you have, Left Of Left. Just a sentence or two.
OMG!!!
All-aboard the Trump hate-wagon!
The key question is whether it was worse than any other university in this regard.
One though, one vote.
Depends on your credit score.
*Get Your Free Credit Scores From All 3 Bureaus
http://www.freescoreonline.com
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Benito Mussolini, if you believe that the key question is whether it was worse than real universities or not then you are woefully insufficient to be making attempts at identifying key questions.
There was a time when news reporting was trustworthy and relevant. Today, readers take it with a grain of salt. This is due to the amount of lies and exaggerations perpetrated by the dishonest media community. The peoples’ votes should be honored and NOT questioned and ridiculed by the media. Donald Trump is Teflon coated and the press is responsible for that!
You know it just hit me. Perhaps the reason no one has been able to scare up any college admission essays, grades transcripts or thesis papers on Obama in all the years of hard research is because Obama attended Trump U?
Harvard Grad Magna Cum Laude vs Trump University. Obviously you have no college experience. You didn’t get accepted to Trump U.
Since this is a one-sided, clearly partisan story, people should know the other side as well.
The lawsuit in question and the 3 students who are involved, filled out questionnaires rating Trump’s university. They all gave it 5 out of 5 stars and commented on how good the school was. In other words, these docs show the students were satisfied with the school. Why would these students who were allegedly defrauded, give Trump’s university 5 out of 5 stars and praise the university in their questionnaires if they believed they were defrauded? The student docs praising Trump university are posted on Trump’s twitter and once a jury sees the student docs this case will be easily dismissed.
After reading this article I now believe Trump will get Mexico to pay for the wall. I wish I’d enrolled, these people are going to be set for life!
Thank you for the information.
A systemic condescending superiority complex by establishment GOP Party Leaders and their spineless puppet candidates are killing the GOP Party and Mitt Romney personifies this disaster.
These GOP mini communist dictators are now taking steps to muzzle and manipulate their own GOP voting members because they do not agree with their own GOP voting results.
The GOP Party is also taking steps to destroy TRUMP because the GOP voting members prefer TRUMP. The GOP party fears TRUMP because they can’t control TRUMP. TRUMP would save the GOP Party by removing these mini communist dictators from the GOP Party.
American Voters must forever be vigilant to insure they do not forfeit Americas’ Freedoms and innocent candidates to communist threats.
This GOP Party should not be campaigning in America. This GOP Party should be sent to CUBA where mini dictators and their communist parties belong. IDIOTS!
I do not like labeling people however in your case an exception will be made. Conspiracy theorists come in many forms and I myself fit into one of those categories. If you actually did the research necessary to make your wild theory credible in nature you would find that Trump has made his own bed by publically authoring biographys and thus allowing scrutiny by others to take place and to validate results of those claims of wrongdoing. If you examine the Court cases against him you will find the strongest evidence for those suing Trump to be contained in his own words. Trump himself has and will continue to reveal to the public his life, lies, intentional fraud, and many other less than positive attributes without anyone having to conjure up “trumped” up charges.
A systemic condescending superiority complex by the establishment.
The complaint is explosive… the problem is, voters can’t afford to wait for the courts to figure it out. There are things The Intercept can investigate directly, like the claim of fraudulently altered documents. Simplest of all: I just heard a news story with Trump saying that TU had “an A rating from the Better Business Bureau”. The complaint says D-. We need a third party to go see – was it A or was it D-? Etc.
That said, my nose would have kept me a million miles away from any of this nonsense.
Well, the complainants certainly learned a valuable lesson; I am not sure this will help Trump and his lawyers, though.
The article was mind provoking. So let me get this right, now I’m thinking Mr. Trump is like Neo in the film the Matrix, and our government is the Matrix. Neo being the a reflection of the government that created him. Thus Mr. Trump now is being absorbed by the government system, The Matrix. But the Matrix is repelling Neo, their own creation with the Mr. Smith anti-virus protection system.
Cat shit or dog shit for dinner? Democracies: your right to choose.
I can’t believe how stupid American’s are to let a lying cheating sack of shit weasel like Trump anywhere near the Oval Office. We shake our heads and laugh at you for even considering this carnival barker for the highest office in the land but if he gets in you’re on your own. It will be the US and Israel with it’s carnival barker Netanyahu against the world. Netanyahu has already destroyed Israel’s credibility and Trump/Dpumph will surely destroy yours. America under Trump will be the world’s Hillbilly nation. Of course you’ll probably be dumb enough to be proud of that. As proud as you are of your racism and murderous gun culture. Have you AR 15’d your kid today?
Netanyahu and Trump in the same room scheming (sorry, “negotiating”) is a pretty scary thought.
Netanyahu’s Israel already has the Sampson Option. I suspect America has had the same option for a long, long time but Herr Drumph will make sure to hammer out the details and make the threat public. Also I believe scheming is the correct word any time those two talk.
Having made these pronouncements now present the evidence. Unfortunately I don’t think you have any. You just do not like the man and have translated that into an attack on his character. Why should anyone believe you. Still, have a go at proving your thesis.
A candidate for president who makes references his penis during a debate. We have a racist, a fraud. How he can fix an education system when he’s part of the problem. Supporting him would not be patriotic.
I suspect in the word “you” are included all Americans. But as an American I fully agree with you, thus your universal indictment doesn’t stand the test.
There is absolutely no acceptable means by which to explain or justify popular support for Trump. In my view, no negative words exist by which to adequately define him. Perhaps it comes down to a simple question: “Would you purchase a condom from this man in the expectation it doesn’t have a hole in it???”
Altho sad to be a recipient of your critical remarks, I cannot help but accept them as justified. What a world, huh!?
Don’t waste time on the above. Compared with Hilary Clinton or perhaps soon Mitt Romney, Donald is an angel. According to Newt Gingrich Trump does not belong to a Secret Society (i.e. they don’t have the requisite comprising videos) and this is really distressing to the Elite. Trump is pretty much his own man and is capable of changing his mind as new information comes his way. E.g. torture. If Trump is bad, all the rest are worse. Don’t even consider Sanders as he will never get the nomination from Hilary — and Obama would be terrified of indicting her as he himself also was involved in the e-mail imbroglio. And the tales she could tell with documentation would be something to fill Federal Prisons to capacity. Without a doubt she is the most powerful person in the USA in terms of real Dirt; whom of any note could she not blackmail ? Apart from being simply a rotten egg Romney laundered drug money for the Bush family business. Etc. Rubio is a kid. Cruz is another worthless Harvard educated attorney. And neither is a natural born citizen and both know it. Al Sharpton knows the score and really would be wise to leave the country if Trump is elected though he owes too much income tax to use his US passport! The USA has no right to much in the way of a president given its history, so we better take the best offered even if he is far from perfect.
I sifted through your post to summarize the positive things you had to say about Trump:
* Compared to Hillary and Mitt, he is an Angel
* He doesn’t belong to a secret society
* He is “his own man”
* He is capable of changing his mind (wow! Thought I was the only one)
Really compelling stuff.
And: “If Trump is bad, all the rest are worse.” Hell of a sales pitch.
Trump is no different than his running mates. Should we delve into Rubio’s financial transactions?
Not sure you know what a running mate is
Love or hate the guy, it is still illegal and I believe a felony to threaten the life of a candidate running for president who is under Secret Service protection.
Jonathan Chait just threatened Trump with assassination on Twitter:
http://allnewspipeline.com/NY_MAG_Chait_Offers_Trump_Bounty.php
Chait should promptly be arrested, charged and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Yes, there is no place in this society for CHAIT crimes.
Calm down killer, it was just a joke that went over your head.
The Tweet he is responding to says:
Chait is pretending that Romney’s speech includes Romney putting a bounty on the head of Trump.
Christ, some of you are truly dense.
Except the most recent BBB ranking was an A+. The Intercept has really become dishonest. When will these unresearched smear pieces stop?
it is NOT accredited or listed. Hence NOT A+
Please provide evidence that the A+ rating was after the D rating.
Politifact disagrees
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/feb/28/donald-trump/fact-checking-donald-trumps-claims-about-trump-uni/
I’m willing to give him the benefit on this. It just seems like a bad business deal out of the thousands of business deals he’s made.
Trump runs a billion dollar company so cannot be involved at length in anything he does. It looks like the mistake he made was trusting one of his junior people to run this university (badly) and not devoting enough attention to it.
Not that much mud has come out about Trump other than this. The thousands of people he employs over the many years – many of them along with the ex- wives and girlfriends – all seem to have positive things to say about him.
I’m still voting for him as he is White Christian America’s last hope although I feel that battle has been lost as the West propels itself towards a third world violent slum.
So if its bad business deal, it’s ok that he doesn’t have to own up to it. What happens if it something to do with the country and it affect way more people because of a bad deal that he made? It’s ok and doesn’t have to take any responsibility?
To quote you: “Trump runs a billion dollar company so cannot be involved at length in anything he does” Is this the approach that you expect the president to take when running a country? He is just some figure head that make no important decisions and he can just delegate someone else to do it for him?
“Trump runs a billion dollar company so cannot be involved at length in anything he does. It looks like the mistake he made was trusting one of his junior people to run this university (badly) and not devoting enough attention to it.”
Is this the behavior that you expect of the president? He doesn’t have to be involved in any decision in any depth because he is to busy with something else and when things hit the fan it’s not his fault? It is his fault for not being involved in the first place.
By this logic, then you can’t blame any of problems on any president elect because they are just puppets and all the junior people create/solve all the real problems.
After last night’s debate, have your thoughts on Trump changed? Essential analysis: http://goo.gl/WMhZxe
Trump is part of the corrupt establishment and changes his story whenever needed like a corrupt establishment politician.
Oddly enough, that gives me relief. I’m torn between thinking that if he becomes president one of two things will happen:
1) his creepiest supporters will go stormtrooper & we will get hardcore fascism the old fashioned way…..and yet, with his playing all sides, I’m thinking it might be more like this:
2) the more normal pattern will hold: Energy dissipates amongst the supporters once the candidate is in office. Electing a president that thinks like them is a balm, a calm, and they will be in their happy place, and not make too many waves for a while. I’m thinking of the way right-wing terrorism declined in the 2000s compared to the 90s, or the way the liberals who pretended to care SO DEEPLY about civil liberties and American expansionism under Bush suddenly relaxed and got all security-minded, it was all good with their imaginary friend Obama was in the White House.
I don’t know which way it would go, I do more expect the latter, which is not as newsworthy.
Trump may be corrupt but he is in no way part of the “establishment.” The establishment’s guilt lies in its tolerance or acceptance of obstructionist tea partiers, who brought government to a halt while inexplicably complaining that government cannot do anything. They helped make the American people truly hate Congress collectively and thereby open the door for a non-establishment idiot populist like Trump, who thrives in part because he is “an outsider.”
If he was indeed part of “the establishment,” how do you explain their rebellion against him?
I’ve never seen a candidate receive so much hatred in my lifetime.
He is exposing the (liberal) establishment and the media attacks on him have been vicious. Huffpo is embarrassing itself in its one eyed bias. Sascha Cohen’s movie depicting Trump with HIV is a new low.
Correction: We’ve never seen a candidate SPEW so much hatred in our lifetime.
Care to explain what “one eyed bias” is supposed to mean?
So does that mean we add “liberal MSM establishment” stickers to Fox News, the National Review, the Weekly Standard, and others?
Don’t fret. Under the Trump regime, Cohen would be summarily executed.
Yes. The right has never tried to smeat Obama with birther bullshit, repeatedly repeating his middle name as proof that he’s a Muslim,,l crying for his death, and that he’s a fascist. Yes, the right is a paragon of hope.
He’s not the establishment, he’s just the golf buddy of the establishment….throws great parties…..and says in harsher terms pretty much the same things they say (as GG’s article demonstrates)
On the further side of the “he’s really the establishment” argument is that the other candidates all said they’d support him if he is the nominee last night…..some resistance!
That said, I think they have worries — legitimate fears — that Trump’s popularity will not extend to the rest of the Republican Party — that creates a dangerous situation for mere party functionaries and toadies. They probably worry that he won’t be enough of a ‘team player’ for them.
Those are my assessments and guesses.
The term “establishment” must be used in the proper context, which is political.
There is a difference between having a relationship with Trump in his capacity as an entertainer, public figure and/or potential donor versus his political views coalescing with the GOP establishment (i.e. RNC, leadership, key commentators and media). They exert little influence over him.
Example 1 — https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/02/the-republican-establishment-waited-too-long-to-stop-donald-trump-now-they-probably-cant/
Example 2 — http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/431079/trump-cruz-are-nh-winners-armageddon-gop-establishment
Those comments were pathetic, but that doesn’t make Trump “establishment.” It just means Cruz, Kasich and Rubio are spineless politicians. I mean, I wouldn’t expect them to say they’d choose Hillary instead of Trump, but to at least say they’d pick a third party candidate.
In refutation of your point, Bernie Sanders can legitimately claim to be anti-establishment but I think it is fair to say he would support Hillary for the Presidential bid. Does that render Bernie “establishment”?
As corrupt as Trump seems to want to be,
he has a long way to go until he can match the Pentagon’s
“Be all you can be” whereby you earn an education by
helping slaughter people and destroying nations.
As far as I am aware, there is no copywrite on the motto: “Be all you can be”. (Trump, the warthog, aside … Lol!) Just my two cents worth.
But Trump seems to be in favor of being “the most militaristic” , killing innocent families, carpet on mbing, and more torture.
The US is a pyramid scheme. Why is Trump really any different than any other leader or potential leader of this country? All our presidents and governments did worse than this to the American Indians and regular hard working citizen since the beginning of the colonization. Trump just is the ubermensch of it all. The 21st century snake oil salesman, no different from Washington or Jackson, or the rest of them. We just think that past leaders had wisdom and poise, as history books and the analog stone age of journalism wasn’t so saturated as it is now. In the past they just covered it up better and didn’t wear it so much on their sleeve. Trump is the Frankenstein monster and by product of the end of an empire.
Did you really just equate Donald Trump with George Washington.
Please, do tell how the latter was a snake-oil salesman.
Trying to convince yourselves that Trump’s candidacy is merely business as usual only demonstrates a lack of attention to what is happening. He is a uniquely dangerous candidate. A perpetual liar (almost an 80% false spectrum rating on Politifact!) , a racist, sexist, lewd human being with no governing experience, no vision, ethics or morals; and no policies. He threatens opponents, he threatens journalists, he mocks the disabled, he snarls at protesters, he talks about his dick for chrissakes! Yet you mindlessly ask why he’s different than any other leader or potential leader in this country!? Get a grip with reality!
Trump is a disgusting anomaly and I hope it remains so in the future. That people will look back on this as a dark time for not only the pathetic GOP but for undeniably large segments of the U.S. population that support this pond-scum of a person.
Good to see that Glenn’s “late-stage imperial collapse” talking point is gaining traction.
I don’t know if Washington was a snake oil salesman but he definitely was a terrorist and a traitor to his king no matter what you call him now.
Okay….I’ll play along. The traitor one is at least arguable, if you are putting yourself in the shoes of the King and Parliament in the 18th century. But ya know how it goes: “History is written by the victors.”
But a “terrorist”? Please humor me on this claim. Grabs 3d glasses and popcorn
There are some less-known things about Washington, like how in 1791 he rounded up a conscript army bigger than what he used in the revolutionary war, to go put down efforts by the free people of Transsylvania (Pittsburgh) to declare independence over an issue of taxation without representation.
Under the Articles of Confederation that would have been true.
But the Constitution granted Congress’ ability to assess taxes. Claims of “taxation without representation” were ideological concerns from the perspective of anti-federalists who believed only the state could levy such “internal taxes.” But they were represented, through the central government.
Congress passed the Whiskey tax in 1791.
http://history.house.gov/HistoricalHighlight/Detail/35785
Organized crime. They should use the RICO laws on them.