Another day, another revelation of fraud. For the second time in less than a year, the New York Times has exposed the Trump family as tax cheats, grifters and generally immoral people. As first reported in the New York Times in October of 2018 the Trump family fortune was created through, “instances of outright fraud,”[by] evading taxes on hundreds of millions of dollars. Yesterday the Times’ focus was narrowed to renouncing the myth of Trump’s art of dealing. Yesterday, NYTimes’ reporter Susanne Craig revealed that Mr. Trump is as phony as the alleged golden throne he tweets from. Even more dangerous was Craig’s speculation of how Trump continued to recoup the money he lost over a decade that amounted to over a billion dollars.
Trump’s money fakery begs the question; why would a man so braggadocios, so encased in his own sense of grandeur be so anxious to conceal his so-called wealth, from an investigation? A man like Donald Trump who went so far as to pretend he was his own press agent “John Barron” (or “Baron”) to brag about his tryst with famous women would go to such lengths to hide his wealth is not credible. Some of you may remember the Trump foray into professional wrestling. In his match, it carried the stipulation, if the wrestler backed by either Trump or Vince McMahon were to lose, the sponsor would have their head shaved. Of course, Trump’s ego would never have allowed him to have his head shaved in a predetermined outcome so of course, his wrestler won. That match was held during WrestleMania 23, coincidentally on April 1, 2007; The match was entitled, battle of the billionaires—April Fool.
The specter of lights, fake blood, and crude language, that is so much a part of professional wrestling, is a metaphor for not only Trump’s presidency but his life and family. Trump’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, resigned her federal judgeship abruptly to halt an ethics investigation into complaints against her involving—what else, tax schemes. Trump’s father Fred, an alleged member of the Ku Klux Klan, was involved in a famous discrimination case, denying blacks the right to rent apartments, and tax avoidance throughout his career.
Most of this is old news but its’ relevance speaks to the blind followers of the President who have given him cult-like status. That sort of hero worship is troubling when the subject of the adulation is the corrupt leader of the free world. A leader who berates the free press, ignores Constitutionally guaranteed Congressional oversight, ridicules judges with whom he disagrees and his public policy position called for the blanket denial of entrants into this country from people who practice a religion [Islam] he apparently abhors.
Between the President’s name calling, self-indulgent pity and denials of guilt another school shooting took place. A young man named Kendrick Castillo saved the lives of his fellow students by literally taking a bullet for his classmates. The President took to Twitter, and between his self-pity, he made note of a ‘precious young life…’ not acknowledging Castillo by name. As the father of 3 and the grandfather of school-age grandchildren, thank you for your unselfish act, Mr. Kendrick Castillo.
Vote in 2020 for Change.