Donald Trump on Government Reform 2016 Republican incumbent President; 2000 Reform Primary Challenger for President

Sub-sections under Government Reform:
• Voting and Campaign Reform
• Other issues under Government Reform

FactCheck: 128 judgeships open because Senate GOP forced it

Excerpts from The Hill e-zine, March 29, 2018: "Republicans took control of the Senate in 2014 during Obama's last two years in office and did not confirm many of his nominees. The Senate's top Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, teamed up to block Democratic efforts to push forward Obama's nominees, slowing down confirmations by the most in six decades. Most notably, McConnell refused to hold a confirmation hearing on Obama's nominee for Supreme Court justice, Merrick Garland. The vacancies left behind by the Obama administration were not by choice.

Obama left 128 openings for judges; I appointed 300

Solicited mail-in ballots ok; unsolicited ballots are fraud

Q: In 2018, in the last midterm election, 31 million people voted mail-in voting. That was more than a quarter of all the voters that year, cast their ballots by mail. Now that millions of mail-in ballots have gone out, what are you going to do about it? And are you counting on the Supreme Court, including a Justice Barrett, to settle any dispute?

TRUMP: I think I'm counting on them to look at the ballots, definitely. I hope we don't need them, in terms of the election itself. But for the ballots, I think so, because what's happening is incredible. This is not going to end well.

Confirmation of Neil Gorsuch among top accomplishments

The press never gave the president much credit for these achievements--90% of the media coverage in the first year of the Trump presidency was negative. The American people ended 2017 much better with Trump than his predecessor, but you certainly wouldn't know it from the media coverage.

Against mail-in voting, early voting as terrible, dishonest

"I think if you vote, you should go. Even the concept of early voting is not the greatest, because a lot of things happen," he said. But he emphasized "there's a lot of dishonesty going on with mail-in voting, mail-in ballots. Thousands of votes are gathered and dumped in a location and all of a sudden you lose elections that you think you win," Trump said. "I'm not going to stand for it."

FactCheck: Whistleblower rules never require 1st-hand report

The theory was initially propagated by The Federalist website on Sep. 27. The article claims that in "Aug. 2019, the intelligence community secretly eliminated a requirement that whistleblowers provide direct, first-hand knowledge of alleged wrongdoings."

Facts First: This is false. The whistleblower submission form was revised in Aug. 2019, but the revision did not change the rules on who can submit a whistleblower complaint. The inspector general of the intelligence community said that having firsthand knowledge of the event has never been required in order to submit a whistleblower complaint.

Our news media is the enemy of the people

"Heading to Helsinki, Finland--looking forward to meeting with President Putin tomorrow," Trump tweeted. "Unfortunately, no matter how well I do at the Summit, if I was given the great city of Moscow as retribution for all of the sins and evils committed by Russia over the years, I would return to criticism that it wasn't good enough--that I should have gotten Saint Petersburg in addition!"

"Much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people and all the Dems know how to do is resist and obstruct!" Trump added. "This is why there is such hatred and dissension in our country--but at some point, it will heal!"

We don't worship government; we worship God

Trump made a profit from his 2016 campaign

FactCheck: Removed more regulations than other presidents

Is that true? Washington Post Fact-Check: One possible measurement is regulations withdrawn, determined from the OMB database, narrowed just to an administration's first sweep through the regulations:

• Bush: 181
• Obama: 156
• Trump: 469

Lifetime ban on becoming foreign lobbyists

For every new regulation, must eliminate two old ones

Proud to work with McConnell to appoint conservative judges

The effort to transform the courts is one that will benefit the American people far into the future. It is a legacy I am immensely proud and one for which Mitch McConnell deserves great credit. Confirming judges has been a key part of making the past two and a half years one of the most productive and conservative periods in our nation's history.

Get rid of waste, fraud, & abuse in every single agency

TRUMP: Correct.

Q: Like what? And please be specific.

TRUMP: Department of Education. We're getting rid of Common Core. Department of Environmental Protection. We're going take a tremendous amount out. The waste, fraud, and abuse is massive.

Q: But your numbers don't add up. The total budget for the education department is $78 billion. The entire budget for the EPA, $8 billion. The deficit this year is $544 billion. Your numbers don't add up. You say that Medicare could save $300 billion a year negotiating lower drug prices. But Medicare total only spends $78 billion a year on drugs.

Q: But that doesn't really cut the federal deficit.

TRUMP: Of course it is. We are going to buy things for less money.

I wouldn't nominate my sister to Supreme Court

Q: Have you suggested your sister as a Supreme Court justice?

TRUMP: I have not.

Q: You said she would be great...

TRUMP: She's very smart.

Q: But you'd have to rule that out because she was your sister?

TRUMP: My sister is a brilliant woman. She was appointed by Ronald Reagan. He said appointed by Bill Clinton. She was elevated by Clinton to the Court of Appeals, a very high position, right under the Supreme Court. The reason she was elevated, she was an outstanding intellect and an outstanding judge. I don't even know what her views are on abortion. She is certainly not a radical anything; that's not her thing

Delay, delay, delay on Supreme Court appointment

TRUMP: If I were President now I would certainly want to try and nominate a justice. Frankly, I'm absolutely sure that President Obama will try and do it. I hope that our Senate is going to be able to do something about it.

Q: So, just to be clear on this, you're OK with the President nominating somebody?

TRUMP: think he's going to do it whether or I'm OK with it or not. I think it's up to [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell, and everybody else to stop it. It's called delay, delay, delay.

I would build consensus, not use Executive Orders

TRUMP: I would build consensus with Congress. I don't like the idea of using executive orders like our president. I would build consensus, but consensus means hard work. You have to get them into the Oval Office and get them all together, and you have to make deals.

Hug 'em & kiss 'em & make deals, instead of executive orders

Q: Mr. Trump, you literally wrote the book on making deals. How is a deal maker any different?

TRUMP: A good deal maker will make great deals, but we'll do it the way our founders thought it should be done. People get together, they make deals. Ronald Reagan did it with Tip O'Neill very successfully, you didn't hear so much about executive orders, if you heard about it at all. You have to be able to get a consensus. The deal with Iran, how bad a deal is that? It doesn't get any more amateurish than that. A good deal maker would never make a deal like that. With Congress, you have to get everybody in a room, and you have to get them to agree. But, you have to get them to agree what you want, and that's part of being a deal maker. You have to get people in, grab them, hug them, kiss them, and get the deal done. But, it's got to be the deal that you want.

Mutually profitable 2-way relationship with the media

Many people believe I do well with the press. Maybe I do, sometimes, but anyone who believes I can use the media is absolutely wrong. Nobody can use the press. It's too big, too widespread.

If I do something wrong or make a mistake, they report it accurately. I've got no problem with that. The mistake bothers me, not the reporting.

Get rid of the regulations that are just destroying us

Speak simply & clearly, even when addressing Congress

DJT: Insecure people are often long-winded when they try to convince others that they are important or have special knowledge. I believe in getting to the point in the most direct way possible. It saves everyone's time and teaches you to distill information into sound bites that cannot be misinterpreted. I move quickly in business, so I don't have the time, the desire, or the need to pontificate or sound important. Oftentimes, this backfires. Being concise is more effective, but not necessarily easier. Sometimes I ask people to explain things to me in less than three sentences to make sure they've got it down. Condensing your thoughts is a great technique for both speaking and writing. Busy people work in sound bites; anything more can be a waste of time or cause confusion. I prefer to speak simply and clearly whether I'm addressing my employees or Congress.

Government scrutiny is greatest threat to American Dream

In the 1970s in New York City, reckless regulators under Mayor Beame were running the show [resulting in] municipal bonds worth less than Confederate money. I learned from experiences [like that] just how hard it is for normal, sane, earnest Americans to make their dreams come true when they have to confront mule-headed, but powerful burons-a buron being defined as a cross between a bureaucrat and a moron. In my opinion, burons are opportunity destroyers. They’re guilty of what I call Dreamicide.

Government should do public works & safety & little else

Second: Get government back in the business of providing for public convenience (transportation, public works) and safety (police and firefighters), and make sure it does so efficiently. Then judge its efforts by visible, definable results and fine-tune as needed.

Loser pays all costs, and over-litigiousness stops

If this legislation were enacted, it is my opinion that you would see our courthouses become totally efficient again, in that the caseload would drop by perhaps 70 to 80 percent. The judges and their staffs, who now work endlessly to catch up with needless motions made by nonsense lawyers, would be free to concentrate on the real cases, the ones that deserve to go to court. Everyone knows I'm right, but no politician wants to take on the wrath of the lawyers' lobbying groups. Somebody should--because that person could be assured of being in office forever.

Rebuilt Wollman Rink in 4 months; city failed for 6 years

I discovered that the city’s incompetence had extended to every imaginable detail, large and small. One week after I’d made my deal to take over rebuilding the rink, a city report was released on mistakes made over the past six years. The report provided an astounding chronology of sloppiness, indecision, incompetence, and stupidity, but it came to absolutely no conclusions about who was responsible for the fiasco and what could be done to avoid such failures in the future. If it weren’t so pathetic, it would have been almost comical.

Only one election day, and limit absentee ballot access

HR 1 election reform bill: this monster must be stopped

The only way I can lose is with massive voter fraud

TRUMP: When I see unsolicited ballots, being given out by the millions, and thousands of them are dumped in dumpsters. You see ballots with the name Trump, military ballots, and they're dumped in garbage cans.Q: Your own FBI director says there is no evidence of widespread fraud.

TRUMP: He's not doing a very good job. All you have to do is pick up the papers every day. There's a tremendous problem.

I'm urging my base to watch the polls on Election Day

Elections have consequences; I'm elected for four years

BIDEN: The American people have a right to have a say in who the Supreme Court nominee is and that say occurs when they vote for United States Senators and when they vote for the President of United States. They're not going to get that chance now because we're in the middle of an election already. The election has already started.

Against funding post office due to mail-in ballots

[In response], "Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the U.S. Postal Service is suspending operational changes, like removing mail processing equipment and collection boxes, until after the November election," the Wall Street Journal reports. From a statement: "To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded."

Against funding post office due to mail-in ballots

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the Postal Service is suspending operational changes, like removing mail processing equipment and collection boxes, until after the November election. The agency won't change retail hours at post offices across the country or close any mail-sorting facilities. Overtime hours will continue to be approved as needed to process mail.

From a statement: "To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded." (Aug. 18, PoliticalWire)

Electoral College brings you to many states

Opposes Johnson Amendment barring clergy endorsements

In my Oval Office interview with President Trump, he recognized that executive action on the Johnson Amendment is only the beginning. "Now we want to go through Congress and make it permanent," Trump said. "But we've knocked it, and that was a horrible thing. They're not allowed to get involved, they're not allowed to have any say as to where the country has gone."

Many things can go wrong when early voting goes on too long

"They had that long early voting in Florida. It's so long, and so many things can go wrong when you have that long period of time, right?" Trump told the crowd in Baton Rouge. "That long, long, long period. Used to be you'd have a day, you vote. Now you're going forever. Weeks and weeks."

The president-elect, who continually suggested throughout his campaign that the election was rigged against him, added that he's curious about what occurs when early voting precincts are "locked": "I wonder what happens during the evenings when those places are 'locked,' right?" Trump said, using air quotes.

It's scary that people can vote without ID

Trump: "You don't have to have voter ID to now go in & vote and it's a little bit scary." Trump says without voter ID, "people are going to walk in, they are going to vote 10 times maybe. Who knows?"

Clinton called for universal and automatic voter registration and a 20-day (or more) period of early voting in every state, before every election. Clinton's speech identified the work of protecting and expanding voting rights as a critical part of her campaign. Clinton talked about the fact that African Americans consistently rank among the most deeply affected by the contours of Voter ID laws, must wait in the longest lines on Election Day and cast ballots at polling sites that very often house fewer machines and poll workers than other sites. That, Clinton told the crowd, "is no accident."

There are millions who should not be registered to vote

TRUMP: I will look at it at the time. I'm not looking at anything now. What I've seen is so bad. First of all, the media is so dishonest and so corrupt, and they've poisoned the mind of the voters. But unfortunately for them, I think the voters are seeing through it. If you look at your voter rolls, you will see millions of people that are registered to vote that shouldn't be registered to vote.

Q: But one of the prides of this country is the peaceful transition of power and that no matter how hard-fought a campaign is, that at the end of the campaign that the loser concedes to the winner, Are you saying you're not prepared now to commit to that principle?

TRUMP: What I'm saying is that I will tell you at the time. I'll keep you in suspense. OK?

CLINTON: That's horrifying. You know, every time Donald thinks things are not going in his direction, he claims whatever it is, is rigged against him. This is how Donald thinks.

1980s: donated 30 times over campaign contribution limit

The amount Trump donated in 1985 was equal to three times the annual limit for individual ($50,000), or thirty times higher than the cap for companies ($5,000), under New York state law. But Trump "circumvented" the law, a state commission found, by spreading the donations among eighteen subsidiary companies. Trump told the commissioners he didn't know "the exact reason" it was done this way; it was how his lawyers had said to do it.

Maximum representation & maximum voter participation

It's unlikely that Trump would be well-served in a general election by "empowering voters" and eliminating the barriers to voting that have been erected by Republican lawmakers. One study found that voter ID laws across 23 states would disenfranchise as many as 10 million eligible Latino voters; Trump is famously unpopular with Hispanic voters.

Reject the elite election system; infuse popular will

Let me ask America a question: How has the "system" been working out for you and your family? I, for one, am not interested in defending a system that for decades has served the interest of political parties at the expense of the people.

The only antidote to decades of ruinous rule by a small handful of elites is a bold infusion of popular will. On every major issue affecting this country, the people are right and the governing elite are wrong. The elites are wrong on taxes, on the size of government, on trade, on immigration, on foreign policy.

SuperPACs are a disaster and cause dishonesty

I will be putting up tremendous amounts of money. SuperPACs are a disaster. They're a scam. They cause dishonesty. And you better get rid of them because they are causing a lot of bad decisions to be made by some very good people. And I'm not blaming these folks--well, I guess I could.

Candidates should disavow PACs

I'm not accepting any money from anybody

BUSH: No. Absolutely not. The one guy that tried to get me to change my views on something--that was generous and gave me money--was Donald Trump. He wanted casino gambling in Florida.

TRUMP: I promise if I wanted it, I would have gotten it.

BUSH: No way. Believe me.

Q: What about politicians being controlled by donors?

TRUMP: Jeb made the statement, but I'm not only referring to him. A lot of money was raised by a lot of different people that are standing up here. And the donors, the special interests, the lobbyists have very strong power over these people. I am not accepting any money from anybody. Nobody has control of me other than the people of this country. I'm going to do the right thing.

I give to politicians; and they give back: that's broken!

TRUMP: You'd better believe it.

Q: So what specifically did they do?

TRUMP: If I ask them, if I need them, you know, most of the people on this stage I've given to, just so you understand, a lot of money. I will tell you that our system is broken. I gave to many people, before this, before two months ago, I was a businessman. I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And do you know what? When I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call them, they are there for me. And that's a broken system.

Q: What did you get from Hillary Clinton?

TRUMP: Well, with Hillary Clinton, I said be at my wedding and she came to my wedding. You know why? She didn't have a choice because I gave to her foundation.

Two-term limit on NYC mayor is a terrible idea

Ban soft money; but allow unlimited personal contributions

The third leg to the Trump political reforms is also simple and vital. I believe that Americans should know immediately who is giving what to whom. If we have full participation, we should also have full and fast disclosure.

Supports same campaign finance rules to all organizations.

The Christian Coalition Voter Guide inferred whether candidates agree or disagree with the statement, 'Removing campaign free speech restrictions that are placed on some organizations but not others' The Christian Coalition notes, "You can help make sure that voters have the facts BEFORE they cast their votes. We have surveyed candidates in the most competitive congressional races on the issues that are important to conservatives."