Trumping the GOP

I’ve criticized Donald Trump many times on these pages and rightly so. (See here; here; here; here; here; and here.) That’s because he seemed to always be saying he was running for president but backing out at the last minute because he was never seriously going to do what he said he would do. He just wanted attention. He was a fraud. 

Here’s what I wrote about what he said back in May of 2011, for example:

"I will not be running for president as much as I'd like to," Donald Trump declared suddenly yesterday, after dominating the media headlines over the past six months about how much he loves his country; how he was running for president for the good of the nation; how he was going to “kick China’s ass,” “stuff the oil cartels,” “make the world stop laughing at us,” create jobs,” “undo ObamaCare, and solve all the nation’s financial problems.

The entire charade of his potential candidacy then was a lie; a bombastic, entertaining, but empty hoax. It was pure bullshit. It was a bald faced fraud. He did it all to make money, and he’s made money on it. He did it for publicity; name recognition, and he got plenty of that. He did it for his own personal promotion and self aggrandizement – to show how important he is and how many people he could fool. 

That is the business of Mr. Trump – marketing Donald Trump. He’s brilliant at it. He was promoting his TV reality show then, “The Celebrity Apprentice.” And it worked. The TV ratings skyrocketed. He made big money.

Despite all my personal admiration for the man, his successful business career, and yes, his cogent political ideas, sadly his valuable personal credibility, integrity and reputation for honesty added up to zero with me right there and then. And I wondered why anyone should ever believe another word he said.

Well, last Tuesday he did it again, only this time he actually declared that he is indeed running for president. Too bad he has lost his credibility, not only with me, but with the GOP and the American people. He’s not going to win the nomination. Oh, he’ll get a lot of attention alright, which is what he wants, but he’s not going to be our next president.

I listened carefully to his speech and found myself thinking once again: Wouldn’t it be great if we Americans once and for all elected a president with the competent take charge attitude, and cogent political ideas of a guy like Donald Trump?

The fact is that I agreed with nearly 100% of what he said:

“Our country is in serious trouble... We don’t have victories anymore... When was the last time anybody saw us beating, let’s say, China in a trade deal? They kill us... When did we beat Japan at anything? They send their cars over by the millions, and what do we do? When was the last time you saw a Chevrolet in Tokyo? It doesn’t exist, folks. They beat us all the time... When do we beat Mexico at the border? They’re laughing at us, at our stupidity. And now they are beating us economically. They are not our friend, believe me. But they’re killing us economically.”

“The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems... Last quarter, it was just announced our gross domestic product — a sign of strength, right? But not for us. It was below zero. Whoever heard of this? It’s never below zero... And our real unemployment is anywhere from 18 to 20 percent. Don’t believe the 5.6. Don’t believe it... China has our jobs and Mexico has our jobs... Our enemies are getting stronger and stronger by the way, and we as a country are getting weaker. Even our nuclear arsenal doesn’t work.”

“...Putin and all of the other people that look at us and they say, “That is a group of people, and that is a nation that truly has no clue. They don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t know what they’re doing.”

“We have a disaster called the big lie: ObamaCare... it came out that costs are going for people up 29, 39, 49, and even 55 percent, and deductibles are through the roof... And remember the $5 billion Web site? $5 billion we spent on a Web site, and to this day it doesn’t work... I have so many Web sites, I have them all over the place. I hire people, they do a Web site. It costs me $3.”

“... politicians are all talk, no action. Nothing’s gonna get done. They will not bring us — believe me — to the promised land. They will not... I’ve watched the politicians. I’ve dealt with them all my life. If you can’t make a good deal with a politician, then there’s something wrong with you. You’re certainly not very good. And that’s what we have representing us. They will never make America great again. They don’t even have a chance. They’re controlled fully — they’re controlled fully by the lobbyists, by the donors, and by the special interests, fully.

“I’ll bring back our jobs from China, from Mexico, from Japan, from so many places. I’ll bring back our jobs, and I’ll bring back our money... Right now, think of this: We owe China $1.3 trillion. We owe Japan more than that. So they come in, they take our jobs, they take our money, and then they loan us back the money, and we pay them in interest, and then the dollar goes up so their deal’s even better... How stupid are our leaders? How stupid are these politicians to allow this to happen? How stupid are they?”

“... the people negotiating don’t have a clue. Our president doesn’t have a clue. He’s a bad negotiator...  He’s the one that did Bergdahl. We get Bergdahl, they get five killer terrorists that everybody wanted over there... We get Bergdahl. We get a traitor. We get a no-good traitor, and they get the five people that they wanted for years, and those people are now back on the battlefield trying to kill us. That’s the negotiator we have... Take a look at the deal he’s making with Iran...”

“I’m a free trader. But the problem with free trade is you need really talented people to negotiate for you. If you don’t have talented people, if you don’t have great leadership, if you don’t have people that know business, not just a political hack that got the job because he made a contribution to a campaign, which is the way all jobs, just about, are gotten, free trade terrible... Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people, but we have people that are stupid. We have people that aren’t smart. And we have people that are controlled by special interests. And it’s just not going to work.”

“Save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without cuts. Have to do it.... Get rid of the fraud. Get rid of the waste and abuse, but save it. People have been paying it for years. And now many of these candidates want to cut it. You save it by making the United States, by making us rich again, by taking back all of the money that’s being lost.”

“Renegotiate our foreign trade deals...  Reduce our $18 trillion in debt, because, believe me, we’re in a bubble. We have artificially low interest rates. We have a stock market that, frankly, has been good to me, but I still hate to see what’s happening. We have a stock market that is so bloated. Be careful of a bubble because what you’ve seen in the past might be small potatoes compared to what happens. So be very, very careful.”

You see, Donald Trump isn’t concerned with global warming, climate change, income inequality, common core, gay marriage, culture wars and all the other insufferable bullshit subjects the other candidates are constantly babbling about. He’s talking about competently fulfilling the actual constitutional duties of President of the United States. He’s talking about things that matter.

If only he could pull it off. He might regain his credibility with me.

For now I think his ideas are trumping the GOP.