issues2000

More headlines: Donald Trump on Principles & Values

(Following are older quotations. Click here for main quotations.)


FactCheck: 46M watched SOTU; 98M watched Super Bowl

CLAIM: "More people watched President Trump's 2019 State of the Union address on television than watched Super Bowl Super Bowl LIII."

FACT-CHECK: FALSE. The size of the crowds attending his public events has always been supremely important to President Donald Trump, so much so that he has been known to inflate attendance numbers on more than one occasion. The tendency for exaggeration seems to have rubbed off on some of Trump's supporters, who posted on social media after his 5 February 2019 State of the Union (SOTU) address that more people had watched the president's speech on TV than had watched the 2019 Super Bowl (which is typically the most-watched television broadcast in any given year).

2019's Patriots vs. Rams match-up drew a total viewing audience of 98.2 million watchers--more than twice the viewership of any State of the Union address (including Trump's previous outing) from the past decade. [Post-SOTU reports pegged viewership of SOTU 2019 at 46 million].

Source: Snopes.com Fact-Check on 2019 State of the Union address Feb 6, 2019

FBI: Trump had fewer people at inauguration than Obama

Donald J. Trump was inaugurated the 45th president of the United States on January 20, 2017, before a crowd whose number immediately and famously came into dispute. The new president was determined to demonstrate that the number of spectators that turned out for him, which was sizeable, surpassed the number of people for Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration. They did not. No evidence, photographic or otherwise, would move him off his view, which, as far as everyone but his press team seemed to agree, was simply false.

This small moment was deeply disconcerting to those of us in the business of trying to find the truth, [by which we mean there] are things that are objectively, verifiably either true or false.

It was simply not true that the biggest crowd in history attended the inauguration, as he asserted, or even that Trump's crowd was bigger than Obama's. To say otherwise was not to offer an opinion, a view, a perspective. It was a lie.

Source: A Higher Loyalty, by James Comey, p.228-9 Apr 17, 2018

In NYC almost everyone is Democrat, but I'm Republican

Q: In 2004, you said in most cases you identified as a Democrat. When did you actually become a Republican?

TRUMP: I come from a place, New York City, which is virtually, I mean, it is almost exclusively Democrat. And I have really started to see some of the negatives--as an example, and I have a lot of liking for [Jeb Bush], but the last number of months of his brother's administration were a catastrophe. And unfortunately, those few months gave us President Obama. And you can't be happy about that.

Source: Fox News/Facebook Top Ten First Tier debate transcript Aug 6, 2015

3 principles: One term, two-fisted policies, zero excuses

I would center my presidency on three principles: one term, two-fisted policies, and no excuses. For voters it would be a business approach, and the best one available in the presidential marketplace. I’d lead by example. And what I could also bring to the presidency is a new spirit, a great spirit that we haven’t had in this country for a long time-the kind of spirit that built the American Dream.
Source: The America We Deserve, by Donald Trump, p.276 Jul 2, 2000

I'm a clean-hands freak; and dislike shaking hands

One of the curses of American society is the simple act of shaking hands, and the more successful and famous one becomes, the worse this terrible custom seems to get. I happen to be a clean-hands freak. I feel much better after I thoroughly wash my hands, which I do as often as possible. Recent medical reports have come out saying that colds and various other ailments are spread through the act of shaking hands. I have no doubt about this.

To me the only good thing about the act of shaking hands prior to eating is that I tend to eat less. For example, there is no way, after shaking someone's hand, that I would eat bread. Even walking down the street, as people rush up to shake my hand, I often wonder to myself, why? Why risk catching a cold?

Source: The Art of the Comeback, by Donald Trump, p.175 Oct 27, 1997

I got Obama to produce birth certificate, so I'm satisfied

Q: For five years, you perpetuated a false claim that the nation's first black president was not a natural-born citizen. In the last couple of weeks, you acknowledged that the president was born in the US. What took you so long?

TRUMP: Sidney Blumenthal works for [Hillary's] campaign and sent a highly respected reporter to Kenya to find out about it. They were pressing it very hard. She failed to get the birth certificate. When I got involved, I didn't fail. I got him to give the birth certificate. So I'm satisfied with it.

Q: The birth certificate was produced in 2011. You've continued to question the president's legitimacy as recently as Jan. 2016. What changed your mind?

TRUMP: Nobody was pressing it. But I was the one that got him to produce the birth certificate. And I think I did a good job.

CLINTON: Donald started his political activity based on this racist lie that our first black president was not an American. There was absolutely no evidence for it, but he persisted.

Source: First 2016 Presidential Debate at Hofstra University Sep 26, 2016

OpEd: Obama's grandmother never said he was born in Kenya

[After a TV appearance where he questioned Obama's birth certificate], Trump talked as if facts were being withheld. In none of his statements did Trump offer any reliable sources, and in one case he seemed to ignore the actual record. This happened when he announced, "His grandmother in Kenya said, 'Oh, no, he was born in Kenya, and I was there and I witnessed the birth.' Now, she's on tape and I think the tape's going to be produced fairly soon."

Already public, the tape in question was a recorded telephone interview with Obama's stepmother, Sarah, who was in Kenya. Sarah spoke Swahili. The interviewer was an English-speaking preacher named Ron McRae.

The interview finds McRae saying "Was he born in Mombasa?" In response the translator says, "No. Obama was not born in Mombasa. He was born in America." McRae pressed Sarah on the issue, and the translator, after asking the question and waiting for the answer, replied, "Hawaii. She says he was born in Hawaii."

Source: Never Enough, by Michael D`Antonio, p.288-9 Sep 22, 2015

OpEd: Leveraged government and companies against each other

Winning the right to rebuild the Commodore Hotel [into a midtown-Manhattan modernized Hyatt] gave Trump a 1900-room hotel in a blighted neighborhood. For Donald's plan to succeed, Penn Central (the local railroad) had to sell him the hotel; NYC's bureaucracy had to give him a tax break; and the bank had to front him the money to pay for the whole thing.

Trump played the city, the sellers, and the hotel chain off one another, using one to leverage a deal with the other. When a city official asked for proof of Penn Central's commitment, Trump sent what looked like an agreement with the sellers. Trump then used the city's resulting approval to push his deal with Hyatt to closure. Trump was saved by New York's first-ever tax break for a commercial property--he could buy the hotel for $1, then lease it back for 99 years--an arrangement that would save Trump's project an estimated $440 million over the next 40 years.

Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Marc Fisher, p. 73-5 Aug 23, 2016

OpEd: impeachable act to fire FBI's Comey

[Besides criminal obstruction described in the Mueller Report], the president also committed impeachable offenses. Crimes and impeachable offenses are not the same thing. Some of the most obviously impeachable offenses are the most unacceptable abuses of power [regarding] the firing of former FBI Director James Comey. While this fact pattern is complicated for criminal purposes, as a matter of impeachment, it's very simple indeed. The president of the United States isolated Comey in order to ask that he drop a sensitive FBI investigation in which Trump had a personal interest. The president then leaned on Comey to make public statements about his own status in the investigation. And when he couldn't get Comey to do so, he recruited the deputy attorney general to create a pretext for Comey's removal.

While there may be viable technical defenses against a criminal charge here, there simply is no plausible way to understand this fact pattern as a good-faith exercise of presidential power.

Source: The Atlantic magazine on Mueller Report Apr 29, 2019

OpEd: impeachable act to investigate Hillary Clinton

[One of the most obviously impeachable offenses was] the effort to get A.G. Jeff Sessions to investigate Hillary Clinton. Mueller does not disentangle this effort from the attempt to get Sessions to reassert control of the Russia investigation. Let's do so here: Even as he was trying to get Sessions to protect him from the FBI, Trump was also trying to induce Sessions to investigate his political opponents.

This is not obstruction of justice in any criminal sense. It's rather the opposite of obstruction of justice; it's the initiation of injustice. So I don't think it's plausibly sound in terms of criminal law. But it is molten-core impeachment territory. Consider: The president of the United States was trying to induce the attorney general of the United States to initiate a criminal investigation based on no known criminal predicate against a private citizen whom he happened to dislike.

Source: The Atlantic magazine on Mueller Report Apr 29, 2019

Letting Trump go risks system of justice

[On] witness tampering and intimidation: The Special Counsel's report establishes that the President tried to influence the decisions of both Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort with regard to cooperating with investigators. Some of this tampering and As former federal prosecutors, we recognize that prosecuting obstruction of justice cases is critical because unchecked obstruction?--?which allows intentional interference with criminal investigations to go unpunished?--?puts our whole system of justice at risk. We believe strongly that, but for the OLC memo, the overwhelming weight of professional judgment would come down in favor of prosecution for the conduct outlined in the Mueller Report.
Source: Letter from 500 ex-prosecutors on Mueller Report May 6, 2019

Mueller Report documents 77 lies by Trump campaign

The Mueller report documents at least 77 specific instances where President Donald Trump's campaign staff, administration officials and family members, Republican backers and his associates lied or made false assertions (sometimes unintentionally) to the public, Congress, or authorities, according to a new CNN analysis. The plurality of lies came from Trump himself, and most of them took place while he was president.Lies told to whom:CNN's approach to analyzing the report was this: Every time Mueller documented a false assertion made to the public or federal officials -- even if it was the same falsehood told again and again -- it was counted.
Source: CNN Fact-check/coverage of 2019 Mueller Report Apr 30, 2019

OpEd: criminal act to try to get A.G. to unrecuse

The president committed crimes. Mueller does not accuse the president of crimes. He doesn't have to. But the facts he recounts describe criminal behavior. They describe criminal behavior even if we allow the president's--and the attorney general's-- argument that facially valid exercises of presidential authority cannot be obstructions of justice. They do this because they describe obstructive activity that does not involve facially valid exercises of presidential power at all.

Consider only two examples. The first is the particularly ugly section concerning Trump's efforts to get then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to "unrecuse." Another example: Mueller reports that after the news broke that Trump had sought to get then-White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire the special counsel, Trump sought to get McGahn to deny the story. He also sought to get him to create an internal record denying the story. McGahn refused.

Source: The Atlantic magazine on Mueller Report Apr 29, 2019

OpEd: Trump's crew tried to collude, like Keystone Kollusion

Trump was not complicit in the Russian social-media conspiracy. Separating the wheat from the chaff is important, so let's do so. While Trump has a great deal to answer for, Mueller unambiguously clears him--clears in the true sense of the word--of involvement in Russian efforts to interfere in the U.S. election by means of the Internet Research Agency's social-media campaign.

Here's the key point: If there wasn't collusion on the hacking, it sure wasn't for lack of trying. Indeed, the Mueller report makes clear that Trump personally ordered an attempt to obtain Hillary Clinton's emails; and people associated with the campaign pursued this believing they were dealing with Russian hackers. And Donald Trump Jr. was directly in touch with WikiLeaks--from whom he obtained a password to a hacked database. None of these incidents amount to crimes. But the picture it all paints of the president's conduct is anything but exonerating. Call it Keystone Kollusion.

Source: The Atlantic magazine on Mueller Report Apr 29, 2019

OpEd: strong evidence of collusion by Trump campaign

The redacted Mueller Report documents a series of activities that show strong evidence of collusion. Or, more precisely, it provides significant evidence that Trump Campaign associates cooperated with, encouraged, or gave support to the Russia/WikiLeaks election interference activities. The Report documents the following actions:
  1. Trump was receptive to a Campaign adviser's (George Papadopoulos) pursuit of a back channel to Putin.
  2. Kremlin operatives provided the Campaign a preview of the Russian plan to distribute stolen emails.
  3. The Trump Campaign chairman and deputy chairman (Paul Manafort and Rick Gates) knowingly shared internal polling data and information on battleground states with a Russian spy; and the Campaign chairman worked with the Russian spy on a pro-Russia "peace" plan for Ukraine.
  4. The Trump Campaign chairman periodically shared internal polling data with the Russian spy with the expectation it would be shared with Putin-linked oligarch, Oleg Deripaska.
Source: Ryan Goodman, JustSecurity.org on Mueller Report Apr 29, 2019

OpEd: 1920s law authorizes to get presidential tax returns

"We're fighting all the subpoenas," says the person who is supposed to be chief executive of the United States government. In other words, there is to be no congressional oversight of this administration: no questioning a former White House counsel about the Mueller report. No presidential tax returns to the ways and means committee, even though a 1920s law specifically authorizes the committee to get them. Such a blanket edict fits a dictator of a banana republic, not the president of a constitutional republic founded on separation of powers.

If Congress cannot question the people who are making policy, or obtain critical documents, Congress cannot function as a coequal branch of government. If Congress cannot get information about the executive branch, there is no longer any separation of powers, as sanctified in the US constitution. There is only one power--the power of the president to rule as he wishes. Which is what Donald Trump has sought all along.

Source: Robert Reich in "The Guardian" on impeaching Trump Apr 28, 2019

OpEd: Trump aides must testify despite "executive privilege"

Presidents before Trump have argued that complying with a particular subpoena for a particular person or document would infringe upon confidential deliberations within the executive branch. But no president before Trump has used "executive privilege" as a blanket refusal to cooperate.

Trump is treating Congress with contempt--just as he has treated other democratic institutions that have blocked him. Congress should invoke its inherent power under the constitution to hold any official who refuses a congressional subpoena in contempt.

When President Richard Nixon tried to stop key aides from testifying in the Senate Watergate hearings, in 1973, Senator Sam Ervin, chairman of the Watergate select committee, threatened to jail anyone who refused to appear.

When Nixon tried to block the release of incriminating recordings of his discussions with aides, the supreme court decided that a claim of executive privilege did not protect information pertinent to the investigation of potential crimes.

Source: Robert Reich in "The Guardian" on impeaching Trump Apr 28, 2019

OpEd: would face criminal charges if not president

Prosecutors working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded last year that they had sufficient evidence to seek criminal charges against President Donald Trump for obstruction of justice over the president's alleged pressuring of then FBI Director James Comey in February 2017 to shut down an FBI investigation of the president's then national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

Privately, the two prosecutors, who were then employed in the special counsel's office, told other Justice Department officials that had it not been for the unique nature of the case--the investigation of a sitting president--they would have advocated that he face federal criminal charges.

Given the Justice Department's longstanding doctrine that a president cannot face criminal indictment while in office, Mueller suggested in his report that Congress could still act: the special counsel made more than twenty references in his report to Congress's impeachment power.

Source: NYBooks.com on Prosectors' letter on Mueller Report Apr 26, 2019

Mueller: firing Comey is obstruction if Russia probe delayed

The act of firing Comey [on May 9, 2017] removed the individual overseeing the FBI's Russia investigation. The President knew that Comey was personally involved in the investigation based on Comey's briefing of the Gang of Eight, and the President's one-on-one conversations with Comey.

Firing Comey would qualify as an obstructive act if it had the probable effect of impeding the investigation--for example, if the termination would have the effect of delaying the investigation or providing the President with the opportunity to appoint a director who the President perceived as more protective of his personal interests.

On March 20, 2017, Comey had announced that the FBI was investigating Russia's interference in the election, including "an assessment of whether any crimes were committed." It was widely known that the FBI, as part of the Russia investigation, was investigating the hacking of the DNC's computers--a clear criminal offense.

Source: The Mueller Report, Vol. ii, pp. 74-5 Apr 23, 2019

Trump: no Russia probe; Mueller: yes, Comey was running it

Substantial evidence indicates that the catalyst for the President's decision to fire Comey was Comey's unwillingness to publicly state that the President was not personally under investigation, despite the President's repeated requests that Comey make such an announcement. In the week leading up to Comey's May 3, 2017 Senate Judiciary Committee testimony, the President told McGahn that it would be the last straw if Comey did not set the record straight and publicly announce that the President was not under investigation. But during his May 3 testimony, Comey refused to answer questions about whether the President was being investigated. Comey's refusal angered the President, who criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for leaving him isolated and exposed.

At the time the President fired Comey [on May 9], a grand jury had not begun to hear evidence related to the Russia investigation and no grand jury subpoenas had been issued.

Source: The Mueller Report, Vol. ii, pp. 74-5 Apr 23, 2019

Trump: Mueller has conflict; Mueller: no, it's obstruction

After news reports that in June 2017 the President had ordered McGahn to have the Special Counsel removed, the President publicly disputed these accounts, and privately told McGahn that he had simply wanted McGahn to bring conflicts of interest to the Department of Justice's attention.

Substantial evidence, however, supports the conclusion that the President in fact directed McGahn [on June 17] to call Rosenstein to have the Special Counsel removed.

On June 16, 2017, the President publicly acknowledged that his conduct was under investigation by a federal prosecutor, tweeting, "I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director!"

Substantial evidence indicates that the President's attempts to remove the Special Counsel were linked to the Special Counsel's oversight of investigations that involved the President's conduct--most immediately, to reports that the President was being investigated for potential obstruction of justice.

Source: The Mueller Report, Vol. ii, pp. 88-9 Apr 23, 2019

Barr/Trump's Mueller conclusion: no collusion;no obstruction

On Friday, March 22, 2019, Attorney General William P. Barr broke the news to lawmakers, giving them this four-page summary of the special counsel's top-line findings.

The letter was a political windfall for President Trump. No one else would be indicted, Barr wrote, Mueller had declined to make a prosecution judgement on the question of whether Trump obstructed justice, but instead had described the facts he had found and noted "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." Barr wrote that he [and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein,] reviewed the question themselves and determined the evidence was "not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense." Trump seized on the letter to declare he had been vindicated.

Source: Mueller Report: Wash. Post Related Materials, p.723 Apr 23, 2019

OpEd 2016: Putin hated Hillary and wanted to help Trump win

During the summer of 2016, we were working like crazy to understand what the Russians were up to. Evidence within the intelligence Community strongly suggested that the Russian government was trying to interfere with the election in three ways.

First, they sought to undermine confidence in the American democratic enterprise--to dirty us up so that our election process would no longer be an inspiration to the rest of the world.

Second, the Russians wanted to hurt Hillary Clinton. Putin hated her, blaming her personally for large street demonstrations against him in Moscow in December 2011. Putin took that as an unforgivable personal attack.

Third, Putin wanted to help Donald Trump win. Trump had been saying favorable things about the Russian government and Putin had shown a long-standing appreciation for business Leaders who cut deals rather than stand on principle.

Source: A Higher Loyalty, p.189, by James Comey Apr 17, 2018

OpEd:FBI believes Steele Dossier showed Russian interference

[GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS] Q: You first were briefed on the Steele dossier in August of 2015. What did you make of it?

COMEY: That it, at its core, was consistent with the other information we'd gathered during the intelligence investigation. That there was a massive Russian effort underway to interfere with our election with three goals: to dirty up the American democracy so it's not a shining light for others around the world; to hurt Hillary Clinton, who Vladimir Putin personally hated; and to help Donald Trump become elected president. Those allegations are at the core of the Steele dossier, and we already knew that was true from totally separate information. And it was coming from a credible source.

Q: Did you know it had been financed at the beginning by President Trump's political opponents?

COMEY: I was told at some point that the effort had originally been financed by a Republican source to develop opposition research on Trump, and then Democrats were paying for it.

Source: ABC-TV Q&A: Jim Comey on Higher Loyalty & impeaching Trump Apr 15, 2018

Electing Hillary means four more years of Obama

We're going to make America great. We have a depleted military. It has to be helped. We don't take care of our veterans. We take care of illegal immigrants better than we take care of our vets. We need law and order, but we need justice, too. Our inner cities are a disaster. You get shot walking to the store. They have no education. They have no jobs. We cannot take four more years of Barack Obama, and that's what you get when you get her.
Source: Third 2016 Presidential Debate moderated by Fox News Oct 19, 2016

Hillary does not have the stamina to be president

Q: This year Secretary Clinton became the first woman nominated for president by a major party. Earlier this month, you said she doesn't have, quote, "a presidential look." She's standing here right now. What did you mean by that?

TRUMP: She doesn't have the look. She doesn't have the stamina. I said she doesn't have the stamina. And I don't believe she does have the stamina. To be president of this country, you need tremendous stamina. You have to be able to negotiate our trade deals. You have so many different things you have to be able to do, and I don't believe that Hillary has the stamina.

CLINTON: Well, as soon as he travels to 112 countries and negotiates a peace deal, a cease-fire, a release of dissidents, an opening of new opportunities in nations around the world, or even spends 11 hours testifying in front of a congressional committee, he can talk to me about stamina.

Source: First 2016 Presidential Debate at Hofstra University Sep 26, 2016

I beat 16 very talented people in the primary

Q: Does Donald Trump have the temperament to be commander-in-chief? Can we afford to have a commander-in-chief who says things that he later regrets?

A: Sure, I regret. But in the meantime, I beat 16 people and here I am. I would have liked to have done it in a nicer manner. But I had 16 very talented people that I had to go through. That was a record in the history of Republican politics. I was able to get more votes than anybody ever has gotten in the history of Republican politics.

Source: 2016 NBC Commander-in-Chief forum with Matt Lauer Sep 7, 2016

Trump made a profit from his 2016 campaign

For the 2016 run, a large share of Trump's campaign money was spent paying himself for the use of his Boeing 757 as well, in addition to his smaller jet, his helicopter, his Trump Tower office space, and other services supplied by Trump businesses. By law, Trump must pay charter rates for his aircraft and market prices for services from his other businesses. This anticorruption law was designed to prevent vendors from underpricing services to win political favors--a legacy of a time when no one imagined that a man of Trump's presumed immense wealth would buy campaign services from himself. In 2016, the law perversely ensured that Trump made a profit from his campaign for the goods and services he bought from the Trump Organization.
Source: The Making of Donald Trump intro, by D.C.Johnston, p. XIII Aug 2, 2016

OpEd: Trump never faced tough press questioning

Trump doesn't know anything. His comments on many issues in 2017 show how appallingly ignorant he is. I wish one of the news personalities interviewing candidates in the 2016 "debates" had asked Trump a question I am sure he could not have answered. Keep this question in mind when you read in this book about other questions he answered with replies indicating complete cluelessness.

Alas Trump never faced tough questioning as a candidate in a forum where he could not walk away or give nonsense answers without repeated follow-up. This is a serious problem for the future of American democracy in the television era, when appearances matter more than reality. Trump will not be the last manifestly unqualified candidate who knows how to manipulate television to his or her advantage and fool many people. To guard against that we need to have flint-eyed reporters--not just smiling television news readers--asking tough questions in public forums that are aimed at eliciting facts and truths.

Source: The Making of Donald Trump intro, by D.C.Johnston, p. XIV-XV Aug 2, 2016

OpEd: Obama doesn't have the psychology of a winner

Trump is generally disgusted by President Barack Obama, whom he regards as weak. In our meetings Trump often filled pauses with criticisms of Obama. Often these statements came during walks to the elevator, when the audio recorders were switched off, or they were couched as "off the record."

In two instances when he spoke on the record, Trump veered from a general discussion of "success" to an evaluation of the president. In the first case he said Obama lacked the qualities of a winner and "has had so many losses and people don't even want to watch him on television." In the second he said the president was not psychologically tough. "It's all psychology. If Obama had that psychology, Russia's Vladimir Putin wouldn't be eating his lunch. He doesn't have that psychology and he never will because it's not in his DNA."

Source: Politico.com article with Trump's "Never Enough" biographer Sep 25, 2015

I want to win as a Republican, but might run as Independent

Q: Is there anyone on stage who is unwilling tonight to pledge your support to the eventual nominee of the Republican party and pledge to not run an independent campaign against that person. [Only Trump raises hand]. Mr. Trump to be clear, you're standing on a Republican primary debate stage.

TRUMP: I fully understand.

Q: And that experts say an independent run would almost certainly hand the race over to Democrats & likely another Clinton. You can't say tonight that you can make that pledge?

TRUMP: I cannot say. I have to respect the person that [is nominated], if it's not me, I can totally make that pledge. If I'm the nominee, I will pledge I will not run as an independent. We want to win; I want to win as the Republican; I want to run as the Republican nominee.

RAND PAUL: He's already hedging his bet. Maybe he supports Clinton, or maybe he runs as an independent.

Q: You're not gonna make the pledge tonight?

TRUMP: I will not make the pledge at this time.

Source: Fox News/Facebook Top Ten First Tier debate transcript Aug 6, 2015

No more morning in America; we'll be mourning FOR America

If we keep on this path, if we reelect Barack Obama, the America we leave our kids and grandkids won't look like the American we were blessed to grow up in. The American Dream will be in hock. The shining city on the hill will start to look like an inner-city wreck. It won't be working in America, as President Reagan put it. We'll be mourning for America, an America that was lost on Obama's watch. The dollar will fall as the world's international currency. Our economy will collapse again (something I believe is a very real danger and risk: a double dip recession that could turn into a depression). And China will replace American as the world's number one economic power.

But it doesn't have to be this way. If we get tough and make the hard choices, we can make America a rich nation--and respected--once again.

Source: Time to Get Tough, by Donald Trump, p. 4 Dec 5, 2011

Bad students (like Obama) shouldn't go to Harvard

If there were any doubts about the racial animus driving Donald Trump's attacks on Barack Obama, Trump questioned how Obama could possibly have been admitted to Ivy League schools, since Trump "heard" Obama was a "terrible student." Trump said he was investigating the issue, whatever that means, just as he claims to have dispatched investigators to Hawaii in order to find the president's famous birth certificate.

"How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?" Trump said. "I'm thinking about it, I'm certainly looking into it. Let him show his records." By charging that Obama was not admitted based on merit, Trump is suggesting that Obama was admitted because he is black. In GOP politics, attacking racial minorities as the underachieving beneficiaries of affirmative action is a very old move. Trump is blatantly attacking Obama's teenage qualifications for college--a topic so obscure, it was a non-issue in Obama's exhaustive, two-year-long presidential campaign.

Source: Ari Melberon in The Nation, "Coded Racism" Apr 27, 2011

OpEd: Praised Hillary Clinton in 2008 election

Q: Mr. Trump, since you are not running for president, who do we support and how do we get started?

DT: You have a lot of good people. Rudy Giuliani is a very good person. Hillary Clinton is a very good person. We might not like what's going on right now, but we live in a very resilient country, and we'll find a way out of our problems. This country is very, very resilient.

Source: Think Big, by Donald Trump, p.307 Sep 8, 2008

1980: We handled captives in Iran poorly

Former President Jimmy Carter is a very nice man, but he wasn't my kind of president. I had never supported him and was actually very vocal on how poorly he handled our captives in Iran. As an example, when it was announced Ronald Reagan won the election, the Iranians immediately turned them over to us. If Jimmy Carter had won, they'd probably still be there.
Source: Think Big, by Donald Trump, p.276-7 Sep 8, 2008

Grade school mischief-maker: headstrong and determined

At Kew-Forest school, Donald encountered a dress code--ties and jackets for boys, skirts for girls--and a strict set of rules. From the start, Donald resisted their teachers' commands. Donald spent enough time in detention that his friends nicknamed the punishment DTs--short for "Donny Trumps."

No matter the consequences, Donald's behavior did not change. "He was headstrong and determined," said a Kew-Forest teacher. "He would sit with his arms folded, with this look on his face--surly."

By his own account, Trump's primary focus in elementary school was "creating mischief because I liked to stir things up & test people. It wasn't malicious so much as it was aggressive." As a 2nd-grader, as Trump has described it, he punched his music teacher, giving him a "black eye" because "I didn't think he knew anything about music, and I almost got expelled. I'm not proud of that, but it's clear evidence that even early on I had a tendency to stand up and make my opinions known in a very forceful way."

Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p. 34 Aug 23, 2016

1990 Marla Maples headline: "Best sex I ever had"

In early 1990 Donald: "I like Ivana, but we've grown apart. Her level of arrogance has grown steadily worse in recent years."

February 1990 was a newsy month. Nelson Mandela was freed from prison. President George H. W. Bush welcomed the president of Czechoslovakia, as the collapse of the Soviet empire accelerated. But for weeks, one story dominated the front pages of the city's tabloids: Donald vs. Ivana. The obsession in the nation's media capital spread to serious national publications.

The sensational headlines reached their apex with the Post's February 16 front-page "Best Sex I've Ever Had", a statement supposedly uttered by Maples in reference to Donald. The headline would become a tabloid classic.

The Post's managing editor, Colasuonno. Did Marla really say what the Post was about to trumpet on page one? "Guys, this headline is libel-proof," he said. "Donald will never complain about this one."

Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.117-8 Aug 23, 2016

After Ivana, never let wife run business again

Trump always made it clear who was boss in his marriages. He and Ivana never had "tremendous fights" because, he said, "ultimately, Ivana does exactly what I tell her to do." Trump came to regret having had her work for him, running hotels and casinos: "My big mistake with Ivana was taking her out of the role of wife. The problem was, work was all she wanted to talk about. I will never again give a wife responsibility within my business." He didn't.

As Trump's private life merged with his public identity, he came to see his marriages as something that either boosted his image and therefore his business's reputation, or as a hindrance. "My marriage, it seemed, was the only area of my life in which I was willing to accept something less than perfection," he said during divorce proceedings with Ivana.

Marla Maples would pose far less of a threat. She wasn't one to challenge him, except for continually pressing him to wed her. This time, there would be no talk of a marriage of equals.

Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.157 Aug 23, 2016

OpEd: curries favor with journalists who don't cross-check

I knew Trump had spent a lifetime cheating and lying and displaying remarkable success at getting away with it. And he spent vast amounts of time currying favor with journalists, mostly those who never let facts get in the way of a good story. Only a few journalists checked & cross-checked his claims and didn't buy Trump's nonsense.

I sized him up as a modern P.T. Barnum selling tickets to modern variations of mermaids, that people decided were worth a bit of their money. Trump was full of himself.

Source: The Making of Donald Trump intro, by D.C.Johnston, p. X-XI Aug 2, 2016

I've always been rebellious and very set in my ways

I was a very rebellious kind of person when I was younger. I don't like to talk about it, actually. But I was a very rebellious person and very set in my ways, evidenced by the fact that I always loved to engage in any type of fight or athletic competition. In fact, I was so rebellious that my parents thought it would be a good idea for me to go to New York Military Academy for five years, starting in eighth grade.
Source: Politico.com article with Trump's "Never Enough" biographer Sep 25, 2015

Fiercely defend religious freedom and terms like "Christmas"

Q: Is religious liberty is at risk in the United States?

Trump: In June 2016, Trump delivered a message to evangelicals that if he wins the White House in November, he will fiercely defend religious freedom. In August 2015, Trump said, "There's an assault on anything having to do with Christianity. They don't want to use the word 'Christmas' anymore at department stores." Trump also said, "There's always lawsuits and unfortunately a lot of those lawsuits are won by the other side. I will assault that. I will go so strongly against so many of the things, when they take away the word 'Christmas.' I go out of my way to use the word 'Christmas.'"

Clinton: Denounces legislative efforts in Indiana and Arkansas that supporters say protect religious expression and opponents say discriminate against gay people. Clinton called it "sad" that Indiana would approve the law, which like the 1993 version is called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Source: 2016 AFA Action iVoterGuide on 2016 presidential hopefuls Nov 8, 2016

Keep the word 'Christmas' in the holiday

Donald Trump said that as president he would fight in court for greater freedom of religious expression because America is trying to sanitize Christianity from the public square: "A week doesn't go by where there's not some negative ruling on something having to do with Christianity," Trump said. "I'll be fighting on the other side much stronger than anybody else that you have up there fighting, because I think it's really outrageous."

Asked whether the Gospels would inform his public-policy choices in the White House, Trump said "deep down, maybe they do" influence his decision-making. For example, Trump said, he is offended that "the word Christmas is being taken out" of the holiday. "I see these stores like Macy's and so many others-- they're afraid to use the word 'Christmas' now," Trump said. "Maybe they can't use it, legally. What's going on is outrageous, and I will do things about it. The beliefs in the Bible had a lot to do with our country."

Source: Washington Times, "Will Trump save Christmas?" by Dave Boyer Aug 26, 2015

OpEd: FBI investigation of Hillary's email proves relevance

Q: The Hillary Clinton email investigation restarted on Oct. 27. Why then?

COMEY: With thousands of emails found on Anthony Weiner's laptop, the question is, "So what do we do now?" I can't see a door that's labeled, "No action here." I can only see two doors: "Speak," and "Conceal."

Q: You knew that candidate Trump is going to say, "This proves everything I've been saying about Hillary Clinton is right." Five previous attorney generals all disagree with you. They say this crossed a line.

COMEY: Yeah, I've heard a lot of that. That was allegedly the reason for my firing.

Q: If you knew that letter would elect Donald Trump, you'd still send it?

COMEY: I would. Because down that path [if the letter was not sent] lies the death of the FBI as an independent force in American life. I was operating in a world where Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump, and if I hide this from the American people, she'll be illegitimate the moment she's elected, the moment this comes out.

Source: ABC-TV Q&A: Jim Comey on Higher Loyalty & impeaching Trump Apr 15, 2018

Mocks opponent as "Pocahontas" at Native American event

Most candidates hoping to unseat U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren in next year's election aren't shying away from President Donald Trump's criticism of her claims of Native American heritage, although all but one say they won't be adopting Trump's habit of deriding the Massachusetts Democrat as "Pocahontas."

Warren has called the Republican president's use of the name a racial slur. Warren has acknowledged telling Harvard and an earlier employer, the University of Pennsylvania, of her heritage but only after she had been hired.

Pocahontas was a native woman who lived in present-day Virginia in the 1600s and agreed to marry an English colonist to help ensure peace and protect her people.

Questions about Warren's heritage, which first surfaced during her successful 2012 campaign to oust Republican Sen. Scott Brown, haven't dampened her popularity in Massachusetts. One recent poll found her leading each of her challengers by more than 20 percentage points.

Source: Boston Globe, on Trump Administration, "Use of 'Pocahontas'" Dec 5, 2017

Hillary & Obama criminally paid people to start riots

Look at what came out today on the clips--I was wondering what happened with my rally in Chicago and other rallies where we had such violence. Clinton is the one--and Obama--that caused the violence. They hired people--they paid them $1,500, and they're on tape saying "be violent, cause fights, do bad things." That was now all on tape, started by her. I believe she got these [sexual assault accusers] to step forward. If it wasn't, they get their 10 minutes of fame. It was lies, and it was fiction.
Source: Third 2016 Presidential Debate moderated by Fox News Oct 19, 2016

We should have impeached George W. Bush for Iraq War lies

Q: In 2008, talking about President George W. Bush's conduct of the war, you said you were surprised that Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi didn't try to impeach him: You added, "which personally I think would have been a wonderful thing." When you were asked what you meant by that and you said: "For the war; he lied, he got us into the war with lies." Do you still believe President Bush should have been impeached.

TRUMP: Obviously, the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake. The war in Iraq, we spent $2 trillion, thousands of lives, we don't even have it. Iran has taken over Iraq. Obviously, it was a mistake. George Bush made a mistake. We can make mistakes. But that one was a beauty. We should have never been in Iraq. We have destabilized the Middle East.

Q: So you still think he should be impeached?

TRUMP: You call it whatever you want. I want to tell you, they lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction, there were none. And they knew there were none.

Source: 2016 CBS Republican primary debate in South Carolina Feb 13, 2016

Other candidates on Principles & Values: Donald Trump on other issues:
2020 Presidential Candidates:
Pres.Donald Trump (R-NY)
V.P.Mike Pence (R-IN)
V.P.Joe Biden (D-DE)
Sen.Kamala Harris (D-CA)
CEO Don Blankenship (Constitution-WV)
CEO Rocky De La Fuente (R-CA)
Howie Hawkins (Green-NY)
Jo Jorgensen (Libertarian-IL)
Gloria La Riva (Socialist-CA)
Kanye West (Birthday-CA)

2020 GOP and Independent primary candidates:
Rep.Justin Amash (Libertarian-MI)
Gov.Lincoln Chafee (Libertarian-RI)
Gov.Larry Hogan (R-MD)
Zoltan Istvan (Libertarian-CA)
Gov.John Kasich (R-OH)
Gov.Mark Sanford (R-SC)
Ian Schlackman (Green-MD)
CEO Howard Schultz (Independent-WA)
Gov.Jesse Ventura (Green-MN)
V.C.Arvin Vohra (Libertarian-MD)
Rep.Joe Walsh (R-IL)
Gov.Bill Weld (Libertarian-NY,R-MA)

2020 Democratic Veepstakes Candidates:
State Rep.Stacey Abrams (D-GA)
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D-GA)
Rep.Val Demings (D-FL)
Sen.Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Sen.Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Sen.Maggie Hassan (D-NH)
Gov.Michelle Lujan-Grisham (D-NM)
Sen.Catherine Masto (D-NV)
Gov.Gina Raimondo (D-RI)
Amb.Susan Rice (D-ME)
Sen.Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
Sen.Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Gov.Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI)
A.G.Sally Yates (D-GA)
Abortion
Budget/Economy
Civil Rights
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Drugs
Education
Energy/Oil
Environment
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Foreign Policy
Free Trade
Govt. Reform
Gun Control
Health Care
Homeland Security
Immigration
Infrastructure/Technology
Jobs
Principles/Values
Social Security
Tax Reform
War/Iraq/Mideast
Welfare/Poverty

External Links about Donald Trump:
Wikipedia
Ballotpedia

2020 Withdrawn Democratic Candidates:
Sen.Michael Bennet (D-CO)
Mayor Mike Bloomberg (I-NYC)
Sen.Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Gov.Steve Bullock (D-MT)
Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-IN)
Secy.Julian Castro (D-TX)
Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NYC)
Rep.John Delaney (D-MD)
Rep.Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI)
Sen.Mike Gravel (D-AK)
Gov.John Hickenlooper (D-CO)
Gov.Jay Inslee (D-WA)
Mayor Wayne Messam (D-FL)
Rep.Seth Moulton (D-MA)
Rep.Beto O`Rourke (D-TX)
Gov.Deval Patrick (D-MA)
Rep.Tim Ryan (D-CA)
Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
Adm.Joe Sestak (D-PA)
CEO Tom Steyer (D-CA)
Rep.Eric Swalwell (D-CA)
Marianne Williamson (D-CA)
CEO Andrew Yang (D-NY)





Page last updated: Jan 03, 2022