PLAIN and SIMPLE

Not to be mean or too blunt about it, but President Donald Trump is a non-stop liar, a crook, and has almost certainly engaged in traitorous acts.  These are not opinions.  They are realities, supported by a vast, overwhelming number of facts that can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in the first two instances, and leave little doubt in the third case.  Given the fact of who he is (a liar, a crook, probably a traitor), there can be no logical reason why ANY American, regardless of their politics, should support the guy.  And yet millions do, for a variety of reasons.  Not knowing how to tell fake news from real facts is a big problem in America, and certainly is a factor.  Not even hearing or reading the real facts, since they only listen to Fox News and similar right-wing opinion sources, and preferring their own “gut feelings” to facts, add to the problem.

Trump is other things as well, and again, these are not merely unsupported opinions, but facts that are easily proven.  He is grossly uneducated and woefully unqualified for the job of President; he disrespects women (grab their pussies!) and has likely sexually abused many; he insults and verbally attacks everyone who disagrees with him; he is an extreme narcissist; he dislikes and denies proven science; he happily attacks the environment at every opportunity.  All of these claims, and more, can also be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.  But to keep things simple, here we’re just going to focus on the three characteristics of the man that, by themselves, are enough make him a disaster as the country's President: He is a liar, a crook, and a traitor to the United States of America.

None of these things would be much of a problem but for the fact that Donald Trump occupies the Presidency illegitimately; he basically stole the election.  This is something people now seem to have forgotten.  Is this also "just an opinion" by a disgruntled Clinton supporter?  No, it is not, and the facts backing this claim are shown beyond any reasonable doubt in my essay “Have They Pulled It Off?” in my paperback Trump Tales, and also on my website: https://jstrebler.blogspot.com/2017/07/have-they-pulled-it-off.html   We have every right to dislike and point out all the flaws and crimes of the man, because he has no right to be our President.  Thus, even if he appointed judges, and pushed legislation and Cabinet-level actions through in legal, ethical ways, those actions are the result of a stolen election, are mostly contrary to what the majority of voting Americans wanted, and are therefore illegitimate. 

But yet Trump IS in power, so we have to deal with that unjust fact.  Starting with the first issue, having a President who LIES ALL THE TIME is a big problem for three reasons.  First, because he’s not being honest about why he’s doing things.  Example: The big tax cut for the middle-class, which gained lots of middle-class support.  Would those people have supported his tax cut if they’d known the truth, that the tax cuts only benefited businesses and the wealthy after the first 2 years, and that they’d cause the national debt to balloon further?  So Trump’s lies convince people to support him when they probably wouldn’t have if they’d known the truth. 

Second, because we won’t be able to trust him when it really matters.  Think of the boy who cried wolf.  After years of lying, hundreds and hundreds of lies, what will happen if there is a genuine emergency – not a “build the wall” kind of phony emergency, but a real one like China attacking all our infrastructure?  How will we know when to believe what Trump tells us, after all his lies?

Third, because quite simply someone who lies all the time is a bad person.  It’s a sign of someone with no moral compass, and who is likely to do all kinds of other bad things.  Why in the world would we want such a person as the leader of our country, the one who represents us around the world?  It just makes no sense.

There are countless documented examples of Trump’s lies.  According to the Washington Post, he had made more than 6,000 “false or misleading claims”, as of November, 2018.  According to the South China Morning Post, Trump lied an average of 15 times a day in 2018.  I heard it's over 9,000 lies or false statements as of March 4, 2019.  So there’s really no question about his lack of truthfulness.  Here, just for the record, are a mere five (5) false statements that Trump made.  They may not be his biggest lies, and not his most important lies, but they are just examples we can cite, and that you can verify by the sources cited.

Lie #1 – “I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA - NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!," 2016  https://theweek.com/speedreads/810185/8-times-trump-denied-doing-business-russia

But then – “Trump’s business ties to Russia stretch back more than 30 years, from big building projects to beauty pageants.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/11/30/trumps-russia-ties-new-scrutiny-amid-michael-cohen-plea/2149518002/

And - "In terms of high-end product influx into the US, Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets," Donald Trump Jr. said at a New York real-estate conference that year.” 2008, cited on: https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-jr-said-money-pouring-in-from-russia-2018-2

Plus – “President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said Sunday that plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow remained an "active proposal" as late as November of 2016” https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/20/giuliani-talks-on-trump-tower-in-moscow-active-during-2016-election-.html

Lie #2 – “If I decide to run for President, I’ll produce my tax returns – absolutely; I would love to do that.” This is critical in understanding his Russian loans, etc.

Watch him say these exact words in 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtQeb7RHUC4

But then - “The White House response is that he’s not going to release his tax returns,” Kellyanne Conway said in January, 2017.  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/22/us/politics/donald-trump-tax-returns.html

And later - "I might release them after I'm out of office."  May, 2017 https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpometer/promise/1421/release-his-tax-returns-after-audit-completed/

Lie #3 - Referring to his giant tax cut of 2017: “The rich will not be gaining at all with this plan.” https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-tax-plan-consequences/

But then – “The $1.5 trillion cut, however, has so far disproportionately benefited the country’s richest citizens. In 2025, a quarter of tax benefits will go to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, and 66 percent will go to the top 20 percent of earners,” September, 2018 https://www.newsweek.com/trump-tax-cuts-rich-americans-republicans-1133372

Pictures are worth 1000 words: Here’s who the non-partisan Tax Policy Center says would benefit from the tax cuts in 2018 (left) and in 2027 (right).  The winners, by far, are those earning $200K or more annually. (Pictures don't show up here.  Go to NPR's link to see them)

https://www.npr.org/2017/12/19/571754894/charts-see-how-much-of-gop-tax-cuts-will-go-to-the-middle-class

Lie #4 – “I will build a great, great wall on our southern border,” he declared that day at Trump Tower in New York. “And I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”  https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-story-keeps-changing-trump-falsely-asserts-he-never-promised-mexico-would-directly-pay-for-the-border-wall

And – Trump said Mexico would pay for it in a one-time, direct payment - "It's an easy decision for Mexico: make a one-time payment of $5-10 billion to ensure that $24 billion continues to flow into their country year after year," https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2019/jan/10/donald-trump/trump-claims-he-never-meant-mexico-would-write-che/

And, “The president has said he is ‘not thrilled’ with the spending legislation. It would allocate $1.375 billion (of US taxpayer money) for 55 miles of bollard fencing.”  February, 2019  https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/14/congress-votes-to-pass-spending-bill-and-avoid-government-shutdown.html

Lie #5 – "Thank you to the LGBT community!" Trump tweeted in June 2016. "I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs.”   https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/19/trump-lgbt-rights-discrimination-353774  

But then – The Trump administration tried to kick transgenders out of the military, said it’s legal to fire workers for being transgender or gay, said it’s OK for shopkeepers to turn away LGBT customers, withdrew protection for transgender students, protected health care workers who refuse to help transgenders patients – etc. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/dominicholden/trump-lgbt-anti-actions-administration-pride-month

Moving on, there is overwhelming evidence that Donald Trump is a crook, a criminal.  How much of that will ultimately be used in court to convict him of felonious crimes that could easily include Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) charges remains to be seen.  But more than one senior government official who is familiar with the situation has compared his business and presidential operations to that of a mob boss. https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a26405932/andrew-mccabe-donald-trump-russia/    As with charges of Trump being a liar, there are numerous cases, backed by credible evidence, of him being a crook.  Once again, I’ll cite a mere five (5) examples of the President’s crookedness both before and during his presidency, just to give the reader the general idea: 

Trump’s a Crook! #1 – Sources including the very Republican Wall Street Journal show that throughout his career as a real estate developer, Trump earned a reputation for stiffing the people who worked on his properties, driving numerous contractors into bankruptcy.  https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trumps-business-plan-left-a-trail-of-unpaid-bills-1465504454

On just one of his projects, Trump’s (failed) Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, “records released by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission in 1990 show that at least 253 subcontractors weren’t paid in full or on time.”  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/09/donald-trump-unpaid-bills-republican-president-laswuits/85297274/

Pathetically enough, Trump also had a reputation for failing to pay the attorneys who successfully defended him in these matters, which was one reason he had such a hard time finding good attorneys to defend him in the Russia investigation. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/opinion/trump-lawyers-elites.html

Trump’s a Crook! #2 – Donald Trump engaged in tax fraud by grossly undervaluing hundreds of millions of dollars of his father’s real estate.  Fox News reported that Trump and his siblings allegedly “set up a phony corporation in an effort to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents.  Trump helped his father take millions of dollar in improper tax deductions and formulated a strategy to undervalue his parents’ real estate holdings in order to reduce the tax bill when the properties were transferred.  In total, Trump’s parents, Fred and Mary Trump, transferred over $1 billion to their children. The money would have created a tax bill of at least $550 million given the 55 percent tax rate then imposed on gifts and inheritances, but the family only paid $52.2 million, tax records indicate.”  https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-reaped-millions-in-shady-tax-schemes-from-fathers-business-report-says-ny-tax-department-reviewing-allegations

(This has obvious connections to Trump’s refusal to release his own tax returns, as discussed earlier.)

Trump’s a Crook! #3 – Along with his other failed enterprises such as the Taj Majal Casino, Trump’s airline, his premium steaks, his own wines, and his multiple bankruptcies that all challenge his reputation as a successful businessman, Donald Trump created a totally fraudulent scam with his Trump University.  Using high pressure sales tactics, and claiming to have personally hand-chosen the top professionals in the field (he later admitted he didn’t choose any of the instructors), people plopped down as much as $35,000 for a course that would give them Trump’s secrets to becoming rich in the real estate business.  Evidence upon evidence showed that the unaccredited “university” did little or nothing to help its students, and that its “98% favorable ratings” from former students was forced out of them in order to get a diploma or get their money back.  https://apnews.com/43033e7cb9974faf879b51251c3a0d07

When you listen to the testimony of Trump’s victims, it is beyond clear that they were “swindled” from the beginning, a total rip-off that was based solely on Trump’s name.   In the end, Trump settled for $25 million, supposedly to clear the air before his term started, but more so because he likely would have had to pay much more if the lawsuits had continued.  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/18/donald-trump-university-settles-president-lawsuit-25-million

Trump’s a Crook! #4 – According to USA Today, Trump and his businesses had been involved in more than 3,500 legal cases in U.S. federal courts and state court, an unprecedented number for a U.S. presidential candidate.  Trump has been involved in “far more litigation than fellow real-estate magnates; the USA Today analysis in 2016 found that Trump had been involved in legal disputes more than Edward J. DeBartolo Jr., Donald Bren, Stephen M. Ross, Sam Zell, and Larry Silverstein combined.”   On "at least three dozen occasions the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has obtained tax liens against Trump properties for nonpayment of taxes.” 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_affairs_of_Donald_Trump

Trump’s a Crook! #5 – The Constitution’s Emoluments clause (Article I, Section 9, Clause 8) prohibits “federal officials receiving benefits from business ventures while in office.”  The Trump International Hotel in D.C. is widely known to be THE place for foreigners to stay when trying to do business with the Trump administration.  Apparently, word gets out if they’re staying there or not, and those staying at Trump’s hotel are believed to have a better chance of having a successful visit.  The President personally profits from stays at the hotel, and so the Attorney Generals of D.C. and Maryland have sued the President in federal court for violating this clause. 

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/02/23/karl-racine-profile-attorney-general-emoluments-lawsuit-trump-2020-225200?fbclid=IwAR2f0_gEvOXNPgPh4huhOKSg7rC5BkgfYiHY0b-AZNYyZdVmy33VS5qCzzk

This is closely related to Trump’s refusal to divest from his businesses as all other Presidents have, in order to avoid running afoul of this Clause and otherwise have conflicts of interest while in office. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2017/01/11/donald-trump-will-hand-over-business/#603c019960d7

According to the BBC, the Office of Government Ethics chief resigned in protest of Trump failing to follow his rulings in this regard.  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40522488

Finally, there’s the whole Russia thing that shows our President to have worked with the Russians – the US’s fiercest adversary - in ways detrimental to the nation.  This means he is a traitor.  For this charge, the evidence is mostly circumstantial, and a bit weaker than the first two (Trump is a liar, a crook).  With the results of the Mueller investigation still unknown, there is no definitive evidence, no smoking gun.  Yet there is strong evidence nevertheless.  For the third time now, we will look at just five (5) things that leave little doubt that Donald Trump has harmed the US by working with the Russians.

Trump the Traitor? #1 – As shown by Lie #1, Trump’s relationship with the Russians goes back decades, and yet he has consistently denied having anything to do with them.  WHY?  Why did his first National Security Advisor (Flynn) lie about his dealings with Russia? https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/04/politics/michael-flynn-russia...court.../index.html  

Why did his first Campaign Manager lie about dealings with Russia?  nymag.com/intelligencer/.../manafort-lying-collusion-russia-protect-trump-mueller.html   

Why did his personal lawyer lie about his, and Trump’s, dealings with the Russians?  https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/01/trump-told-cohen-to-lie-about-trump-tower-moscow   

And how can a man, with three of his very most important connections dealing with the Russians and lying about it, a man who prides himself on controlling everything that happens in his businesses – how can that man not be connected to Russia in ways that are unethical, illegal, even traitorous?  Trump denies any connections whatsoever, and denies even knowing about his guys doing these things.  I suppose it’s possible, but why would we believe that?

Trump the Traitor? #2 – Trump’s son Eric claimed that “We don’t rely on American banks.  We get all the funding we need out of Russia.”  This was during the years when American banks closed their doors to Trump because he had defaulted on so many loans they had made to his businesses.  https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/05/eric-trump-russia-investment-golf-course 

At the same time, there were credible claims of Russia engaging in a huge money laundering operation, in part using American real estate transactions.  https://www.esquire.com/news- politics/politics/a21654291/ /wow-its-strange-these-russians-paid-millions-in-cash-for-trump-properties/ 

Donald Trump himself boasted about selling a Florida mansion to a Russian oligarch for $100 million in 2008; he had bought it for $41.5 million two years earlier. The oligarch, Dmitry Rybolovlev, never lived in the place and only visited it once, according to the Miami Herald.  This was just one of the many transactions Trump made with connected Russians, done all in cash.  https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article135187364.html  

Finally, there’s the connection to Germany’s Deutsche Bank, which kept loaning Trump hundreds of millions of dollars after all the American banks refused to do business with him.  Odd, right?  Well, it’s a little less odd when you learn that Deutsche Bank has paid over $600 million in fines for its role in laundering more than $10 billion of Russian money.  https://money.cnn.com/2017/01/31/investing/deutsche-bank-us-fine-russia-money-laundering/index.html

Rather obviously, Trump was in bed with some top Russians in ways that involved huge amounts of money.  How much leverage that gave them over him, and how much Vladimir Putin was involved, isn’t clear.  But surely there were some hi-jinks going on between the two parties, especially considering how much Trump has denied and tried to hide these things since he started running for office (See: Lie #1)

Trump the Traitor? #3 – In June of 2016, three top members of Donald Trump’s campaign met with several Russians at Trump Tower.  Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, his campaign manager Paul Manafort, and son Donald Trump Jr. met with Natalia Veselnitskaya and Rinat Akhmetshin, allegedly to discuss the issue of Americans adopting Russian children.  But Veselnitskaya, with connections to top Kremlin insiders, and Akhmetshin, a former Russian counter-intelligence officer, were really there to start the ball rolling on getting relief from the sanctions put on Russia, in exchange for “dirt on Hillary Clinton.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Tower_meeting  (Subsequent evidence has shown that at least one of the three Americans – Manafort – had a number of contacts with other connected Russians such as Konstantin Kilimnik, related to the exchange of information about the campaign and the election.  And a vast amount of evidence uncovered by the Mueller investigation is expected to show other Trump associates, e.g. Roger Stone, coordinating with the Russians over the release of emails harmful to the Clinton candidacy, in exchange for sanctions relief.)  https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/mueller-has-evidence-suggesting-stone-associate-knew-clinton-emails-would-n924036

In terms of hard evidence, we know that Trump senior helped Trump junior write a letter explaining the Trump Tower meeting, a letter that falsely presented the adoptions idea.  Now why in the world would Donald Trump help his son lie about this meeting if there were nothing wrong going on?   https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/06/us/politics/trump-tower-russia-meeting.html

Trump the Traitor? #4 – One of the very most disturbing Trump actions are his private meetings with Russian President, Vladimir Putin.  Four (4) times, Trump sat down with Putin and spoken privately with him, with NO Americans learning what was said.  The first time was in Hamburg, Germany on July, 2017 when Trump and Putin spoke at length, with no other Americans present except Trump’s translator; Trump then confiscated the translator’s notes.  The two met briefly again in Hamburg, when Trump pulled up a seat next to Putin at the dinner table for a follow-up chat – again with no Americans knowing what they discussed.  One year later, the two spoke for two hours in Helsinki, Finland, again in secret and with no record of what they discussed.  After that meeting, Trump issued his infamous defense of Putin, saying he believed Putin’s denial of interfering in US elections, rather than believing the unanimous insistence of US intelligence agencies that Russia HAD interfered!  Shortly thereafter, Trump called Putin after Putin had won the rigged presidential election.  Despite “DO NOT CONGRATULATE” written in large letters on the President’s notes by his aides, Trump congratulated Putin on his win.  Finally, the two met in Buenos Aires, Argentina in late-2018, despite Trump saying he wouldn’t meet with Putin because of Russia’s seizure of 3 Ukrainian naval ships.  Once again, they spoke privately, with no information available regarding what was said.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/us/politics/trump-putin-meetings.html

In fact, USA Today reported that Trump went to “extraordinary lengths” to keep the details of his conversation with Putin secret, even from members of his own administration.  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/13/trump-putin-meetings-interpreter-notes/2565471002/  

No other President has ever done anything like this, and every intelligence and diplomacy expert agrees that doing so is very dangerous, and gives Russia leverage over Trump.  It doesn’t take much imagination to think of the ways these conversations could be harmful to America, and could have been related to Trump working secretly with the Russians in ways that prosecutors have suggested.

Trump the Traitor? #5 – Trump’s record of taking extraordinary action to protect Russia, the US’s most dangerous adversary, started before he even took office.  His campaign insisted on having the Republican Party change their 2016 Platform, making it less supportive of Ukraine, and friendlier to Russia than the Party had wanted. https://www.npr.org/2017/12/04/568310790/        2016-rnc-delegate-trump-directed-change-to-party-platform-on-ukraine-support

Also before taking office, a team of the top US intelligence agency heads met with Trump to explain how they knew without a question the Russians had interfered in the 2016 election to help him and hurt Clinton.  Trump didn’t seem impressed by the information, and from then on refused to acknowledge that it had been the Russians.  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/world/europetrump-intelligence-russian-election-meddling-.html  

Once in office, President Trump originally wanted Mitt Romney as his Secretary of State.  But evidence shows that the Russians preferred Rex Tillerson, who had previously worked with Russia on oil deals, and had won the Russian Order of Friendship medal.  So Tillerson got the job.  Incidentally, after several months of working with Trump, Tillerson famously called Trump a “fucking idiot,” https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/376746-russia-says-it-stopped-mitt-romney-from-becoming-secretary-of-state  

In January of this year, the Trump administration inexplicably lifted sanctions on top Russian oligarch and friend of Vladimir Putin, Oleg Deripaska, which would add hundreds of millions of dollars to Deripaska’s billions of dollars.  Congress opposed this bizarre gift to an enemy of the American people.  According to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, “removing them would be ‘deeply flawed and wrong,’ and called Deripaska an ‘agent of Russian President Vladimir Putin's interests abroad’ who is tied to ‘organized crime and Mr. Paul Manafort.”  Trump barely beat back a Congressional measure, with a number of Republicans’ support, opposed to lifting those sanctions, but the measure barely failed.  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oleg-deripaska-us-lifts-sanctions-on-3-companies-major-russian-oligarch-rusal/

So yes, it’s true that Donald Trump hasn’t been convicted of any crimes.  So far.  But that’s much different than saying he hasn’t done anything wrong.  Recently we’ve been getting more clues about what the Mueller investigation has turned up – and it’s not good.  What happens with that information, whether Trump gets impeached or indicted or whatever, we’ll just have to see.  But it’s very obvious that the man is bad news for our country, since he’s a “big league” liar, crook, and almost certainly a traitor.